The University of Minnesota is considering a new policy that would mandate the use of &ldquo;preferred pronouns&rdquo; under threat of expulsion or firing.According to the policy&mdash;currently titled &ldquo;Equity and Access: Gender Identity, Gender Expression, Names and Pronouns&rdquo;&mdash;members of the academic institution &ldquo;are expected to use the names, gender identities, and pronouns specified to them by University members.&rdquo;<a href="https://www.campusreform.org/?ID=10583" style="text-decoration:none;">[RELATED: College lists &#39;ne,&#39; &#39;ve,&#39; &#39;ey&#39; as gender neutral pronouns]</a>The policy, which <a href="http://www.startribune.com/he-she-or-ze-pronouns-could-pose-trouble-under-u-campus-policy/488197021/" style="text-decoration:none;">reportedly</a> began circulating earlier this year, would also allow students to use school facilities based on their preferred gender identity and not their sex assigned at birth.&nbsp;&ldquo;Individuals may access gender-specific facilities that correspond with their gender identities and may participate in University activities and programs consistent with their gender identities including, but not limited to, housing, restrooms, locker rooms, recreation services and activities, and camp programs,&rdquo; the proposal reads.&nbsp;&ldquo;Individuals will not be required to use gender-specific facilities that are inconsistent with their gender identities or to use gender inclusive options because their sex assigned at birth or sex listed on legal documents differs from their gender identity or gender expression,&rdquo; the draft continues.&nbsp;<a href="https://www.campusreform.org/?ID=9513" style="text-decoration:none;">[RELATED: Princeton students can choose any&mdash;or every&mdash;gender identity]</a>The university explains that the document is needed to further support &ldquo;transgender and gender nonconforming&rdquo; individuals on campus and to &ldquo;maintain an environment for University members that is free from discrimination, harassment, and retaliation based on gender identity and gender expression.&rdquo;To accomplish these goals, the policy includes a lengthy list of punishments designed to discourage &ldquo;discrimination&rdquo; and &ldquo;harassment&rdquo; based on gender identity.&nbsp;&ldquo;Discrimination or harassment based on gender identity or gender expression may result in appropriate responsive action, including but not limited to disciplinary action up to and including termination from employment and academic sanctions up to and including academic expulsion,&rdquo; the draft reads.<a href="https://www.campusreform.org/?ID=10330" style="text-decoration:none;">[RELATED: UGA offers how-to guide on using gender-neutral pronouns]</a>In an interview with the&nbsp;Star Tribune, Gabrielle Mead, assistant director of the school&rsquo;s Equal Opportunity and Affirmative Action office, underscored that the policy has not yet been finalized, stressing that &ldquo;the intent is to be able to create more access and an inclusive environment for all of our community members regardless of their gender identity.&rdquo;&nbsp;&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t think I&rsquo;m prepared to talk about the specifics of what would be permitted and not at this stage,&rdquo; she added.&nbsp;The University of Minnesota did not immediately respond to&nbsp;Campus Reform&rsquo;s&nbsp;request for comment.&nbsp;Follow this author on Facebook: <a href="https://www.facebook.com/vladimirovnikitav" style="text-decoration:none;">Nikita Vladimirov</a> and Twitter:&nbsp;<a href="http://www.twitter.com/nikvofficial" style="text-decoration:none;">@nikvofficial</a>

UMN policy would punish incorrect use of gender pronouns

Antifa groups across the country are blasting a Republican bill targeting their preferred approach to political violence, calling the GOP lawmakers &ldquo;fascists&rdquo; for proposing the legislation.The &ldquo;Unmasking Antifa Act,&rdquo; which was introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives on June 8, seeks to &ldquo;provide penalty enhancements for committing certain offenses while in disguise, and for other purposes.&rdquo;<a href="https://www.campusreform.org/?ID=10509" style="text-decoration:none;">[RELATED: Group has &#39;issues&#39; with Marxism, but Antifa &#39;not terrorist&#39;]</a>&ldquo;Whoever, whether or not acting under color of law, while in disguise, including while wearing a mask, injures, oppresses, threatens, or intimidates any person in any State, Territory, Commonwealth, Possession, or District in the free exercise or enjoyment of any right or privilege secured to him by the Constitution or laws of the United States, or because of his having so exercised the same, shall be fined under this title, imprisoned not more than 15 years, or both,&rdquo; the bill reads.The language ensures that violent agitators cannot avoid the extra penalty by simply waiting until their target is done actively demonstrating and then accosting them in retaliation for their earlier expression, as some Antifa groups <a href="https://www.campusreform.org/?ID=9873" style="text-decoration:none;">have done in the past</a>.<a href="https://www.campusreform.org/?ID=9656" style="text-decoration:none;">[RELATED: Conservative Berkeley student stalked, threatened by Antifa]</a>Numerous Antifa organizations have taken to social media to voice their disdain for the legislation, smearing lawmakers behind the initiative and even implying that violent resistance might be an appropriate response.&nbsp;After the bill was was covered by mainstream publications in early July, &ldquo;Antifa USA,&rdquo; an activist group based out of Arizona, tweeted an image of what appears to be an Antifa member surrounded by an arsenal of military-style weapons.&nbsp;&ldquo;I don&#39;t think the #Fascists &amp; their collaborators comprehend the gravity of the situation, our resources, nor dedication to #Antifascism,&rdquo; the organization <a href="https://twitter.com/AntifaUSA/status/1016903343879274496" style="text-decoration:none;">tweeted</a>.&nbsp;<img src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/campusreform/11120/4WM.jpg" style="width: 400px;" class="fr-fic fr-dib">Similarly, other radical leftist groups took the opportunity to smear GOP lawmakers backing the initiative, warning that representatives who vote for the bill will be branded &ldquo;fascists.&rdquo;&nbsp;&ldquo;[T]he unmasking antifa bill was introduced to congress recently,&rdquo; Young Democratic Socialists of America at University of Colorado <a href="https://twitter.com/cu_ydsa/status/1015664456544612352" style="text-decoration:none;">tweeted</a> on July 7. &ldquo;[S]hould any representative vote for it they must clearly be branded as the fascists they are.&rdquo;<img src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/campusreform/11120/1WM1.jpg" style="width: 400px;" class="fr-fic fr-dib">While several Antifa chapters did not directly address the new legislative effort, some retweeted criticisms of the bill from popular left-leaning accounts and organizations.&nbsp;<a href="https://www.campusreform.org/?ID=10375" style="text-decoration:none;">[RELATED: Antifa group proposes &lsquo;law enforcement incineration day&rsquo;]</a>&ldquo;Pro-Trump NY Republican that opposed release of court transcripts in Eric Garner&#39;s murder investigation, is now pushing an &lsquo;Unmasking Antifa&rsquo; bill that would land someone in prison for 15 years who &lsquo;oppresses&rsquo; a neo-Nazi at a rally while wearing a mask,&rdquo; It&rsquo;s Going Down, a radical &ldquo;anarchist&rdquo; blog, <a href="https://twitter.com/IGD_News/status/1016524633871298560" style="text-decoration:none;">tweeted</a> on Monday, referring to Rep. Daniel M. Donovan, Jr. (R-NY).<img src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/campusreform/11120/2WM.jpg" style="width: 500px;" class="fr-fic fr-dib">The bill comes in response to waves of violent Antifa riots and protests across the country, many of which have consumed college campuses, usually in response to slated talks by conservative speakers.In a statement to Campus Reform, Rep. Donovan said that the bill &quot;expands upon long-standing civil rights statutes to make it a crime to deprive someone of Constitutionally-guaranteed protections while masked or disguised.&quot;&nbsp;&quot;Americans have the natural right to speak and protest freely; it is not a right to throw Molotov cocktails and beat people while hiding behind a mask,&quot; the lawmaker added.&nbsp;Follow this author on Facebook: <a href="https://www.facebook.com/vladimirovnikitav" style="text-decoration:none;">Nikita Vladimirov</a> and Twitter:&nbsp;<a href="http://www.twitter.com/nikvofficial" style="text-decoration:none;">@nikvofficial</a>

Antifa groups tweet threats, smears targeting GOP

California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo is slated to initiate dozens of &ldquo;diversity&rdquo; projects in an effort to decrease the total share of white students on campus.&nbsp;According to a lengthy catalog of &ldquo;<a href="https://content-calpoly-edu.s3.amazonaws.com/diversity/1/images/Diversity%20Action%20Initiatives%20Final%206-7-18_%232.pdf" style="text-decoration:none;">Diversity Action Initiatives</a>&rdquo; first obtained by <a href="https://www.thecollegefix.com/post/46633/" style="text-decoration:none;">The College Fix</a>, the school&rsquo;s Office of University Diversity and Inclusion argues that there is &ldquo;still much work to do&rdquo; when it comes to lowering the percentage of white enrollment at the university. &nbsp;&ldquo;In 2011, the campus was 63 percent Caucasian; in fall of 2017, it was less than 55 percent,&rdquo; the administrators write in the May 2 document. &ldquo;Applications from underrepresented minority students doubled between 2008 and 2018, while overall applications during that time increased by just half that much. Progress is being made&mdash;and the university is more diverse now than at any time in its 117-year history&mdash;but there is still much work to do.&rdquo;<a href="https://www.campusreform.org/?ID=11047" style="text-decoration:none;">[RELATED: Students may need counseling after &#39;required&#39; diversity training]</a>The document goes on to explain that the school&rsquo;s diversity goal consists of &ldquo;reflecting the demographics of California,&rdquo; which it hopes to accomplish by implementing suggestions outlined in the report.&nbsp;Similarly, other goals of the university include &ldquo;implementing a pre-enrollment diversity training for new first-year and transfer students,&rdquo; &ldquo;creating Cal Poly Core Pre-Orientation for Black, Latino/a and Native American students,&rdquo; &ldquo;evaluating the implementation of teaching related to diversity and inclusion within each General Education subject area,&rdquo; and much more.&nbsp;The voluminous list of initiatives included in the report outlines the past and future projects that are designed to achieve the school&rsquo;s objectives by improving &ldquo;diversity&rdquo; across all academic departments.&nbsp;Some of the planned projects include &ldquo;college diversity awards,&rdquo; establishing &ldquo;faculty and staff committee that addresses diversity issues,&rdquo; engaging &ldquo;greater percentage of faculty and staff in unconscious bias workshops,&rdquo; providing &ldquo;travel grants to recruit faculty and staff at select national conferences,&rdquo; and more.&nbsp;<a href="https://www.campusreform.org/?ID=10018" style="text-decoration:none;">[RELATED: Student gov mandates diversity training for members]</a>Notably, the university has also taken steps to eliminate programs that have not aligned with its diversity goals. The report explains that administrators &ldquo;eliminated the Early Decision admissions option after discovering that the process disadvantaged low-income students because they would not know the full extent of their financial aid prior to making a commitment.&rdquo;According to the officials, the move resulted in &ldquo;the most diverse incoming class in the university&rsquo;s history in fall 2017.&rdquo;The Office of University Diversity and Inclusion went on to tout the success of some of its past initiatives, claiming that &ldquo;the number of underrepresented minority first-time freshman applicants increased 78.4 percent between 2011 and 2018; the number of Latino first-time freshman applicants increased 80.1 percent; and African-American first-time freshman applicants increased 31 percent.&rdquo;UPDATE: In a statement to Campus Reform, a university spokesperson said that the school &quot;is and will remain merit-based in its admissions process.&quot;&nbsp;&quot;The goal is to expand our pool of applicants so that it includes the broadest possible range of qualified prospective students,&quot; the official added.&nbsp;Follow this author on Facebook: <a href="https://www.facebook.com/vladimirovnikitav" style="text-decoration:none;">Nikita Vladimirov</a> and Twitter:&nbsp;<a href="http://www.twitter.com/nikvofficial" style="text-decoration:none;">@nikvofficial</a>

Cal Poly admins plot to reduce white enrollment

Two academics cautiously defended the concept of college &ldquo;safe spaces&rdquo; in a public debate last week, stopping well short of backing radical opposition to conservative speakers on campus.&nbsp;University of California, Davis law professor Ashutosh Bhagwat and Wesleyan University President Michael Roth took an unconventional approach to defending campus safe spaces during an&nbsp;<a href="https://www.intelligencesquaredus.org/debates/trigger-warning-safe-spaces-are-dangerous" style="text-decoration:none;">Intelligence Squared debate</a> on June 23, acknowledging that some radical activists go &ldquo;too far&rdquo; in opposing controversial speakers.&nbsp;&ldquo;I think part of what&#39;s going on is, the safe spaces debate has become conflated with the debate over controversial speakers on campus, usually conservative speakers, triggering protests,&rdquo; Bhagwat said during the debate. &ldquo;Those are separate questions.&rdquo;<a href="https://www.campusreform.org/?ID=10679" style="text-decoration:none;">[RELATED: University turns frat into &#39;safe space for black students&#39;]</a>&ldquo;I do not think&mdash;sometimes people have said that the entire campus should be a safe space, and therefore it&#39;s the same issue,&rdquo; the professor continued. &ldquo;That goes too far. &nbsp;And they&#39;re driven by completely different concerns.&rdquo; &nbsp;According to Bhagwat, the debate over campus speakers revolves around &ldquo;anger over ideas that students believe&mdash;sometimes legitimately, sometimes not&mdash;to be out of bounds.&rdquo; &nbsp;&ldquo;I think we really need to separate those two questions, because the controversial speaker stuff is complicated,&rdquo; he added.&nbsp;<iframe width="640" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/cQ0pcCV4MeY" frameborder="0" allow="autoplay; encrypted-media" allowfullscreen=""></iframe> Notably, Bhagwat&rsquo;s debate partner also expressed concerns about bias in higher education and revealed that Wesleyan University is attempting to bring more conservative speakers and professors to campus.&nbsp;&ldquo;[A]t colleges and universities today, it is very much the case that there is a strong bias&mdash;sometimes on the faculty, often on the faculty, often on the students&mdash;towards the left,&rdquo; Roth declared. &ldquo;This is not new. This is perhaps something to do with the age of students, but something to do with the politics of our country right now.&ldquo;I have started a program at Wesleyan University to bring more conservative thinkers to campus, more conservative professors,&rdquo; he continued. &ldquo;Army generals or colonels who are retiring from the armed forces to teach courses in international relations and political science, because I think our conservative students need to feel they too can express their views.&rdquo;<a href="https://www.campusreform.org/?ID=9305" style="text-decoration:none;">[RELATED: University serves up soaring &#39;safe space&#39; pledge]</a>Roth and Bhagwat&rsquo;s opponents in the debate, however, remained critical of the concept of &ldquo;safe spaces,&rdquo; and warned that insulating students from controversial speech could lead to dangerous outcomes.&nbsp;&ldquo;Our society is deeply polarized,&rdquo; said PEN America CEO Suzanne Nossel. &ldquo;By sealing off large parts of the campus to guard against certain ideas and viewpoints we&#39;re going to make that problem worse.&rdquo;Quoting from the Oxford Dictionary, Nossel also noted that the definition of &ldquo;safe spaces&rdquo; involves protecting individuals from &ldquo;emotional&rdquo; as well as &ldquo;physical&rdquo; harm, saying that the crux of the debate is really about how broadly universities should protect against emotional harm.Acknowledging that freedom of association gives individual groups the right to hold events at which &ldquo;freedom from emotional harm might be virtually assured,&rdquo; she said the calculus is different when it comes to &ldquo;places where students have no choice but to be,&rdquo; especially when people argue that &ldquo;administrators or institutions should be charged with policing or governing what speech is permissible and what is out of bounds.&rdquo;While she made clear that there is &ldquo;no room for argument&rdquo; when it comes to outright harassment or discrimination, Nossel pointed out that &ldquo;it&rsquo;s those other elements of the definition&mdash;exposure to criticism or any other emotional harm&mdash;those distinguish enforcement of a safe space from simply upholding legal protections.&rdquo;Likewise, David Hudson, Jr., a professor of law at Vanderbilt University, said that while some speech &ldquo;can cause harm,&rdquo; censorship of potentially harmful speech &ldquo;[runs] the risk of engulfing anything that&#39;s considered controversial, anything that&#39;s considered unorthodox, anything that...stridently disagrees with somebody else&#39;s point of view.&rdquo;<a href="https://www.campusreform.org/?ID=10251" style="text-decoration:none;">[RELATED: Campus coffee shop evicts College Republicans from &lsquo;safe space&rsquo;]</a>Despite their moderate position on campus speakers, however, Bhagwat and Roth both defended the idea of &ldquo;safe spaces&rdquo; on college campuses, arguing that the notion is not new or unusual.&nbsp;During his opening statement, Bhagwat maintained that safe spaces should serve much like households, and make college students feel accepted on campuses.&nbsp;&ldquo;Most obviously, all of us are going to go home, in my case tomorrow,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I&#39;m going to hang out with friends and family. That&#39;s a safe space. I expect it to be a safe space. Everyone, my opponents in this debate, feel the same way about their homes.&ldquo;Now think about students at a residential campus,&rdquo; he continued. &ldquo;Sure, part of the reason they&#39;re there is to learn, to debate, to be exposed to new ideas, to learn how to refute ideas they disagree with, but that campus is their home and indeed it is their home in a more full way than even my home.&rdquo;Similarly, Roth argued that safe spaces have more to do with &ldquo;building community where people who have been marginalized over time can find places where they can find comfort in one another&#39;s company, find inspiration in their varied experiences, but not to define the college experience as a whole as being one where you are cut off from antagonistic ideas.&rdquo;<a href="https://www.campusreform.org/?ID=9674" style="text-decoration:none;">[RELATED: Students told to report &#39;negative reactions&#39; to &#39;Safe Place&#39;]</a>&ldquo;Safe spaces were vitally important for gay rights,&rdquo; Roth asserted. &ldquo;They were vitally important for feminism and I think they&#39;re coming up today on college campuses because college campuses have more students from under-represented groups who are trying to define their own places on theses campuses. They&#39;re not trying to censor other people, they are trying to find a way they can belong to historically white and middle-class institutions.&rdquo;Interestingly, Roth also asserted that students who decide to attend a university are &ldquo;not signing up for a marketplace [of ideas],&rdquo; but are rather seeking to be members of &ldquo;a community.&rdquo;&nbsp;&ldquo;And I think providing some students the ability to say, &lsquo;I will not be harassed in this space, I will not be attacked in this space. I will be seen as a member of the community in this space&rsquo;&mdash;that&#39;s a safe space, and it&#39;s not dangerous,&rdquo; he argued. &ldquo;What&#39;s dangerous is to make believe that everybody who comes to a university&mdash;like everybody who comes to a marketplace&mdash;is an equal participant in transactions.&rdquo;Throughout the debate, Hudson and Nossel repeatedly disputed the points made by their adversaries, arguing that their definition of safe spaces lacked specifics.&ldquo;You know, they&#39;re defining safe spaces in this incredibly broad&mdash;I would contend, overbroad&mdash;fashion,&rdquo; Hudson said. &ldquo;What we&#39;re talking about is safe spaces in which students are shielded from challenging, difficult, offensive speech.&rdquo;Follow this author on Facebook: <a href="https://www.facebook.com/vladimirovnikitav" style="text-decoration:none;">Nikita Vladimirov</a> and Twitter:&nbsp;<a href="http://www.twitter.com/nikvofficial" style="text-decoration:none;">@nikvofficial</a>

Profs offer milquetoast defense of 'safe spaces' during debate

The National Association of Scholars has re-published &ldquo;The Case for Colonialism,&rdquo; a controversial essay that was retracted by an academic journal last year following &ldquo;credible threats&rdquo; to the author.The academic freedom watchdog made the announcement in a press release on Wednesday, noting that the essay penned by Portland State University scholar Bruce Gilley triggered &ldquo;a torrent of protest, including death threats,&rdquo; following its publication in&nbsp;Third World Quarterly in 2017.&ldquo;The NAS has re-published &lsquo;The Case for Colonialism&rsquo; to ensure that it will be permanently available to students, scholars, and the general public,&rdquo; the NAS explained.<a href="https://www.campusreform.org/?ID=9768" style="text-decoration:none;">[RELATED: Profs petition to get pro-colonialism article retracted]</a>As&nbsp;<a href="https://www.campusreform.org/?ID=9768" style="text-decoration:none;">previously reported</a> by&nbsp;Campus Reform, the publication of the article provoked widespread protests among academics, many of whom demanded that the journal retract the entire essay, calling &ldquo;offensive,&rdquo; &ldquo;damaging,&rdquo; and &ldquo;harmful.&rdquo;Despite&nbsp;<a href="https://www.campusreform.org/?ID=9877" style="text-decoration:none;">initially defending</a> the work and its peer-review process, the journal&nbsp;<a href="https://www.campusreform.org/?ID=9943" style="text-decoration:none;">went on to remove</a> the article, citing &ldquo;credible threats&rdquo; to the editor prior to Columbus Day.&ldquo;Whilst this clearly demonstrated the essay had undergone double-blind peer review, in line with the journal&#39;s editorial policy, the journal editor has subsequently received serious and credible threats of personal violence,&rdquo; the company explained in a&nbsp;<a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/01436597.2017.1369037" style="text-decoration:none;">withdrawal notice</a>. &ldquo;These threats are linked to the publication of this essay. As the publisher, we must take this seriously.&rdquo;NAS President Peter Wood condemned the attempts to censor Gilley, praising the scholar for communicating &ldquo;a well-reasoned and humane perspective&rdquo; in his work.&ldquo;The efforts to censor Bruce Gilley&rsquo;s article and the attacks on him personally were outrageous,&rdquo; he said in a statement. &ldquo;Gilley published a well-reasoned and humane perspective on the political and economic challenges that face many Third World nations. Anyone who actually reads the article will see his thoughtful tone and good will.&rdquo;<a href="https://www.campusreform.org/?ID=9943" style="text-decoration:none;">[RELATED: &#39;Credible threats&#39; lead to removal of pro-colonialism article]</a>&ldquo;But we live in a time when many in the academic world believe they have the right to prevent the expression of views they disagree with,&rdquo; Wood continued, adding that &ldquo;the intolerance and anti-intellectualism displayed in this instance reached a new extreme.&rdquo;&nbsp;&ldquo;The Case for Colonialism&rdquo; can now be found&nbsp;<a href="https://nas.us18.list-manage.com/track/click?u=0ba257eb49efa7f65c3723911&id=ca3861b1b3&e=824181ccc0" style="text-decoration:none;">online</a>, and will also appear inside the quarterly journal published by the NAS,&nbsp;<a href="https://nas.us18.list-manage.com/track/click?u=0ba257eb49efa7f65c3723911&id=b978c84abd&e=824181ccc0" style="text-decoration:none;">Academic Questions</a>.&nbsp;Follow this author on Facebook: <a href="https://www.facebook.com/vladimirovnikitav" style="text-decoration:none;">Nikita Vladimirov</a> and Twitter:&nbsp;<a href="http://www.twitter.com/nikvofficial" style="text-decoration:none;">@nikvofficial</a>

Retracted pro-colonialism article given new life

The West Point graduate who promoted communism in social media posts last year has officially been discharged from the U.S. Army.<a href="http://www.foxnews.com/us/2018/06/19/west-point-grad-who-posed-with-communism-will-win-in-cap-discharged.html" style="text-decoration:none;">According to&nbsp;Fox News</a>, Spenser Rapone&rsquo;s resignation was accepted Monday, and he will be leaving the military with an other-than-honorable discharge.Rapone&rsquo;s <a href="https://www.campusreform.org/?ID=9861" style="text-decoration:none;">social media posts</a>, including a picture of him wearing a Che Guevara shirt under his military attire, sparked outrage last year, with officials blasting the West Point graduate for his radical political activism.&nbsp;<a href="https://www.campusreform.org/?ID=9861" style="text-decoration:none;">[RELATED: West Point grad promotes communism while in uniform]</a>&nbsp;&ldquo;The U.S. Military Academy strives to develop leaders who internalize the academy&#39;s motto of Duty, Honor, Country, and who live the Army values,&rdquo; the military academy said in <a href="https://www.usma.edu/news/Shared%20Documents/Response%20to%20Social%20Media%20Posts%20by%20USMA%20Graduate.pdf" style="text-decoration:none;">a statement</a> at the time. &ldquo;Second Lieutenant Rapone&#39;s actions in no way reflect the values of the U.S. Military Academy or the U.S. Army.&ldquo;As figures of public trust, members of the military must exhibit exemplary conduct, and are prohibited from engaging in certain expressions of political speech in uniform,&rdquo; West Point continued. &ldquo;Second Lieutenant Rapone&#39;s chain of command is aware of his actions and is looking into the matter. The academy is prepared to assist the officer&#39;s chain of command as required.&rdquo;According to <a href="http://dailycaller.com/2017/09/27/former-congressman-who-nominated-communist-extremist-to-west-point-aggressively-disavows/" style="text-decoration:none;">The Daily Caller</a>, former Democratic congressman from Pennsylvania, Jason Altmire, who nominated Rapone for the elite military institution, also disavowed the former cadet&rsquo;s actions, calling them &ldquo;abhorrent.&rdquo;&ldquo;While I strongly support the rights of American citizens to express their opinions, the actions of 2nd Lieutenant Rapone are abhorrent and appear to be in clear violation of the Uniform Code of Military Justice, in addition to being inconsistent with the values of the United States Military Academy,&rdquo; the former lawmaker said last year. &ldquo;I have no doubt that the U.S. Army will take appropriate action.&rdquo;Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) welcomed the decision to discharge the West Point graduate, noting that Rapone&rsquo;s pictures suggest that he supported U.S. enemies.&ldquo;While in uniform, Spenser Rapone advocated for communism and political violence, and expressed support and sympathy for enemies of the United States,&rdquo; Rubio said, as reported by Fox News. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m glad to see that they have given him an &lsquo;other-than-honorable&rsquo; discharge.&rdquo;<a href="https://www.campusreform.org/?ID=7573" style="text-decoration:none;">[RELATED: Citadel refuses exemption for prospective cadet to wear hijab]</a>According to the news network, Rapone said that he &ldquo;knew there could be repercussions,&rdquo; to his actions and that his &ldquo;military career is dead in the water.&rdquo;&nbsp;&ldquo;On the other hand, many people reached out and showed me support,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;There are a lot of veterans both active duty and not that feel like I do.&rdquo;&quot;I would encourage all soldiers who have a conscience to lay down their arms and join me and so many others who are willing to stop serving the agents of imperialism and join us in a revolutionary movement,&quot; Rapone added.Rapone also <a href="https://twitter.com/punkproletarian/status/1008729236679675906" style="text-decoration:none;">posted a picture on Twitter</a> Monday showing him giving the middle finger to the sign outside Fort Drum, along with the caption, &ldquo;One final salute.&rdquo;Follow this author on Facebook: <a href="https://www.facebook.com/vladimirovnikitav" style="text-decoration:none;">Nikita Vladimirov</a> and Twitter:&nbsp;<a href="http://www.twitter.com/nikvofficial" style="text-decoration:none;">@nikvofficial</a>

Army discharges West Point grad who promoted communism

A national organization of academics has put the University of Nebraska-Lincoln on its censure list for suspending an instructor who berated a conservative student on campus last year.In a&nbsp;<a href="https://www.aaup.org/news/aaup-adds-university-nebraska%E2%80%93lincoln-censure-list-violations-principles#.WyfFeqdKiUk" style="text-decoration:none;">June 16 statement</a>, the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) announced that it put University of Nebraska-Lincoln administrators on its censure list, condemning the administration for disciplining lecturer Courtney Lawton after she&nbsp;<a href="https://www.campusreform.org/?ID=9649" style="text-decoration:none;">verbally harassed</a> student Kaitlyn Mullen while she was recruiting for a conservative organization on campus.&ldquo;Delegates to the 104th Annual Meeting of the AAUP voted today to add the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL) to the AAUP&rsquo;s list of administrations censured for failing to observe generally recognized principles of academic freedom and tenure,&rdquo; the group wrote. &ldquo;An AAUP investigation found that UNL may have violated principles of academic freedom in suspending and failing to reinstate Ms. Courtney Lawton from her teaching responsibilities.&rdquo;&nbsp;<a href="https://www.campusreform.org/?ID=9649" style="text-decoration:none;">[RELATED: VIDEO: Profs bully TPUSA prez while she recruits on campus]</a>As&nbsp;<a href="https://www.campusreform.org/?ID=9649" style="text-decoration:none;">previously reported by&nbsp;Campus Reform</a>, Lawton joined several other faculty members in belittling Mullen while she tried to recruit new members for UNL&rsquo;s Turning Point USA chapter last August.&nbsp;While the other instructors held signs critical of TPUSA, Lawton circled Mullen&rsquo;s table, extended her middle finger, and accused the student of being a &ldquo;neo-fascist Becky&rdquo; who wants &ldquo;to destroy public schools, public universities, [and] hates DACA kids.&rdquo;The altercation was harshly condemned by state lawmakers, who&nbsp;<a href="https://www.campusreform.org/?ID=10077" style="text-decoration:none;">demanded</a> that the school explain why its faculty members are hostile toward conservative students. In response to the inquiry, university President Hank Bounds announced that Lawton will not be teaching at the institution and acknowledged that the lecturer had &ldquo;mistreated&rdquo; the student.<a href="https://www.campusreform.org/?ID=10077" style="text-decoration:none;">[RELATED: Lawmakers demand to know why UNL is hostile to conservatives]</a>In May, the AAUP&nbsp;<a href="https://www.campusreform.org/?ID=10891" style="text-decoration:none;">published a report</a> blasting the school for its decision to dismiss Lawton, arguing that the move was a result of &ldquo;political pressure&rdquo; from lawmakers and announcing that its members would decide whether to formally censure UNL at the organization&rsquo;s annual meeting in June.&ldquo;Censure by the AAUP informs the public as well as the academic community that the administration of an institution has not adhered to the generally recognized principles of academic freedom and tenure,&rdquo; the organization explained last week.&nbsp;Notably, though, <a href="https://www.aaup.org/our-programs/academic-freedom/censure-list" style="text-decoration:none;">censure by the AAUP</a> does not carry any actual ramifications, serving merely to inform AAUP members of &ldquo;unsatisfactory conditions&rdquo; so that they can decide whether they wish to &ldquo;refrain from accepting appointment to an institution so long as it remains on the censure list.&rdquo;&ldquo;I would have preferred that NU&rsquo;s administration respected academic freedom and due process in handling my case in the first place, rather than getting censured after the fact,&rdquo; Lawton said in an <a href="http://www.omaha.com/news/national-professors-group-formally-censures-unl-for-handling-of-incident/article_e7fd347e-7f0c-51db-8bf1-cbd1afd77ee8.html" style="text-decoration:none;">email to The Omaha World-Herald</a>.According to the newspaper, UNL has countered that its response to Lawton&rsquo;s actions was misinterpreted by AAUP, asserting that the lecturer was allowed continue her research until the end of this academic year, and was even given an opportunity for a hearing, which she rejected. &nbsp;Spokespersons for the University of Nebraska-Lincoln did not immediately respond to&nbsp;Campus Reform&rsquo;s&nbsp;request for comment.&nbsp;Follow this author on Facebook: <a href="https://www.facebook.com/vladimirovnikitav" style="text-decoration:none;">Nikita Vladimirov</a> and Twitter:&nbsp;<a href="http://www.twitter.com/nikvofficial" style="text-decoration:none;">@nikvofficial</a>

AAUP censures UNL for punishing lecturer who bullied student

Louisiana has officially become the 10th U.S. state to pass legislation protecting free expression on college campuses.&nbsp;Last week, Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards signed <a href="https://legiscan.com/LA/text/SB364/2018" style="text-decoration:none;">Senate Bill 364</a>, which will require institutions of higher education to &ldquo;develop policies, regulations, and expectations of students regarding free expression and association on campus.&rdquo;<a href="https://www.campusreform.org/?ID=10656" style="text-decoration:none;">[RELATED: MAP: 24 states have now proposed campus free speech bills]</a>The law further requires those policies to &ldquo;be made public in the institution&#39;s handbook, on its website, and through student orientation programs,&rdquo; &ldquo;be incorporated in the materials, programs, and procedures provided to all employees and students,&rdquo; and &ldquo;provide information regarding the procedures whereby a person aggrieved by a violation of...the institution&#39;s policies on free expression may seek relief.&rdquo;Notably, the new legislation mandates that the policies on free expression must contain at least seven provisions, including &ldquo;a statement that it is not the proper role of an institution to shield individuals from speech protected by the First Amendment of the Constitution...including without limitation ideas and opinions they find unwelcome, disagreeable, or even deeply offensive.&rdquo;With the passage of the bill, Louisiana joins nine other states&mdash;Florida, North Carolina, Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, Colorado, Utah, Georgia, and Arizona&mdash;that have also adopted legislation designed to protect free speech on college campuses.&nbsp;In total, half of all U.S. states have now either passed or introduced similar bills to defend the First Amendment in higher education.<a href="https://www.campusreform.org/?ID=10529" style="text-decoration:none;">[RELATED: MN legislation takes on &#39;intellectual bullying&#39; on campus]</a>Despite signing the latest free speech bill, Louisiana&rsquo;s Democratic governor had <a href="https://www.campusreform.org/?ID=9374" style="text-decoration:none;">vetoed similar legislation</a> almost exactly a year earlier, remarking that the bill &quot;is a solution in search of a problem.&rdquo;When asked to explain why the governor decided to approve the second bill, Edwards&rsquo; spokesperson <a href="http://www.theadvocate.com/baton_rouge/news/politics/legislature/article_9f2242fe-6a8f-11e8-9937-7b6131abfe91.html?utm_content=buffer45abb&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer" style="text-decoration:none;">told The Advocate</a> that &quot;these are two very different bills that seek very different outcomes,&rdquo; asserting that the first measure &ldquo;was unnecessary and created an overly burdensome structure for the evaluation of the freedom of speech on college campuses.&rdquo;The governor was critical of a provision of the previous free speech bill that would have required a 15-member panel to regulate and supervise its guidelines, as well as a provision that &ldquo;would have placed sanctions on students who interfered with other students expressing their constitutional right,&rdquo; the spokesperson added.Unlike last year&rsquo;s bill, which was sponsored by House Republican Caucus Chairman Lance Harris, the recent legislation was spearheaded by GOP State Senator Rick Ward III and does not appear to have a mandate for an oversight committee. The Advocate notes that Harris was a political opponent of the governor, specifically regarding the state&rsquo;s $648 million shortfall.Ward, meanwhile, told the publication that he had voted for Harris&rsquo; legislation, and did not seek to draft a bill that was substantially different from the one introduced by his House colleague.&nbsp;Follow this author on Facebook: <a href="https://www.facebook.com/vladimirovnikitav" style="text-decoration:none;">Nikita Vladimirov</a> and Twitter:&nbsp;<a href="http://www.twitter.com/nikvofficial" style="text-decoration:none;">@nikvofficial</a>

Louisiana gov reverses course, signs campus free speech bill

The Department of Justice (DOJ) has filed a statement of interest in a lawsuit challenging the University of Michigan&rsquo;s controversial speech code policies.The DOJ announced the move in a&nbsp;<a href="https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/justice-department-files-statement-interest-michigan-free-speech-case" style="text-decoration:none;">press release</a> Monday, summarizing the facts of the case and explaining the government&rsquo;s position on campus free speech.&nbsp;As&nbsp;<a href="https://www.campusreform.org/?ID=10878" style="text-decoration:none;">previously reported by&nbsp;Campus Reform</a>, the school&rsquo;s broad disciplinary code attracted attention from a free speech watchdog, Speech First, that sued the university over its &quot;highly subjective&quot; policies earlier this year.<a href="https://www.campusreform.org/?ID=10926" style="text-decoration:none;">[RELATED: UMich claims free speech lawsuit has &lsquo;mistaken premises&rsquo;]</a>&ldquo;Speech First alleges that the University of Michigan&rsquo;s policies on &lsquo;harassment,&rsquo; &lsquo;bullying,&rsquo; and &lsquo;bias&rsquo; are so vague and overbroad as to prompt students to limit their speech out of fear that they might be subject to disciplinary sanction, including &lsquo;individual education&rsquo; or &lsquo;restorative justice&rsquo; at the hands of the University&rsquo;s Bias Response Team,&rdquo; the DOJ said in a statement.&ldquo;The United States&rsquo; Statement of Interest argues that the University of Michigan&rsquo;s Statement of Student Rights and Responsibilities, which prohibits &lsquo;harassment,&rsquo; &lsquo;bullying,&rsquo; and &lsquo;bias,&rsquo; is unconstitutional because it offers no clear, objective definitions of the violations,&rdquo; the department continued. &ldquo;Instead, the Statement refers students to a wide array of &lsquo;examples of various interpretations that exist for the terms,&rsquo; many of which depend on a listener&rsquo;s subjective reaction to speech.&rdquo;According to the press release, the DOJ is also taking aim at the school&rsquo;s bias response policy, arguing that it &ldquo;chills protected speech&rdquo; by encouraging students to &ldquo;report any suspected instances of bias&rdquo; to the school&rsquo;s Bias Response Team.&ldquo;Freedom of speech and expression on the American campus are under attack,&rdquo; Acting Associate Attorney General Jesse Panuccio said in a statement. &ldquo;This Justice Department, under the leadership of Attorney General Jeff Sessions, is committed to promoting and defending Americans&rsquo; first freedom at public universities.&quot;<a href="https://www.campusreform.org/?ID=10437" style="text-decoration:none;">[RELATED: DOJ backs conservative students in lawsuit against Berkeley]</a>Nicole Neily, president of Speech First, praised the Trump administration for its interest in the lawsuit, lauding the DOJ for its effort in protecting the First Amendment rights of students.&nbsp;&ldquo;We&rsquo;re delighted that the U.S. Department of Justice has filed a statement of interest in our case against the University of Michigan,&rdquo; Neily told&nbsp;Campus Reform. &ldquo;Over the past year, DOJ has shown that they place a high priority on the First Amendment rights of students across the country, and we look forward to the court ruling on the merits of&nbsp;Speech First v. Schlissel.&rdquo;University of Michigan officials, however, have reportedly disputed the accuracy of the DOJ&rsquo;s statement, arguing that the school&rsquo;s Bias Response Team does not have the power to discipline students.&ldquo;Contrary to the department&rsquo;s statement, the university&rsquo;s Bias Response Team does not &#39;have the authority to subject students to discipline and sanction,&rsquo;&rdquo; said university spokesman Rick Fitzgerald, as reported by&nbsp;<a href="http://michiganradio.org/post/us-dept-justice-files-statement-interest-um-free-speech-lawsuit" style="text-decoration:none;">Michigan Radio</a>. &ldquo;It provides support to students on a voluntary basis; it does not investigate claims of bias or discipline students in any way.&rdquo;Follow this author on Facebook: <a href="https://www.facebook.com/vladimirovnikitav" style="text-decoration:none;">Nikita Vladimirov</a> and Twitter:&nbsp;<a href="http://www.twitter.com/nikvofficial" style="text-decoration:none;">@nikvofficial</a>

DOJ backs free speech watchdog in lawsuit against UMich

A conservative professor who is suing New Mexico State University for wrongful termination will be amending his lawsuit Monday to include a new felony claim.&nbsp;The new allegation was announced in a press release obtained by Campus Reform, and references a New Mexico statute designed to protect employees from coercion.<a href="https://www.campusreform.org/?ID=10960" style="text-decoration:none;">[RELATED: Conservative prof claims he was fired over political beliefs]</a><a href="https://law.justia.com/codes/new-mexico/2015/chapter-1/article-20/section-1-20-13" style="text-decoration:none;">According to Justia</a>, the 2015 law states that &ldquo;directly or indirectly discharging or threatening to discharge [an] employee because of the employee&#39;s political opinions or belief or because of such employee&#39;s intention to vote or refrain from voting for any candidate, party, proposition, question, or constitutional amendment,&rdquo; is classified as a &ldquo;fourth degree felony.&rdquo;&ldquo;The New Mexico Supreme Court has held that victims of such felonious conduct can also sue for damages, so Dr. Clarkson will be amending the complaint on Monday to include retaliatory termination as an additional tort claim against NMSU,&rdquo; a spokesperson for Dr. Gavin Clarkson said in a press release.&nbsp;The professor also plans &ldquo;to argue his own case in court (pro se) and says he will also notify the district attorney of the alleged felony violation for possible criminal prosecution.&rdquo;As previously reported by Campus Reform, Clarkson recently announced his lawsuit accusing the university of terminating his position at the school because he is running for Congress as a Republican.The professor also alleges that the school violated its own policy by cancelling his leave after he stepped down from a position in the Trump administration, and making it difficult for him to run a congressional campaign.&nbsp;<a href="https://www.campusreform.org/?ID=10770" style="text-decoration:none;">[RELATED: Marquette devotes website, ads to disputing conservative prof]</a>&ldquo;Given that I have a written leave until 2020 I figured&hellip;I will just stay on leave and go run for Congress,&rdquo; Clarkson said in an interview with Campus Reform in February. &ldquo;Well, the partisan Democrats in the administration could not tolerate a conservative Christian American-Indian Republican running for Congress who happened to be identified as an NMSU professor.&rdquo;&nbsp;&ldquo;I announced on January 8th. On January 12th&hellip;I get a letter from a provost saying he is unilaterally cancelling my leave,&rdquo; Clarkson added, claiming that NMSU&rsquo;s general counsel and provost are both registered Democrats.Likewise, Clarkson told Campus Reform that he has faced repeated discrimination at the university, including accusations of self-plagiarism that the professor also disputes in the lawsuit.&nbsp;&ldquo;Since Dr. Clarkson is the nation&rsquo;s leading scholar in tribal finance, however, they were unable to document any cases of actual plagiarism and instead compiled a dossier alleging &lsquo;self-plagiarism,&rsquo;&rdquo; reads the list of factual claims obtained by Campus Reform.&nbsp;&ldquo;The fake dossier contained passages that Dr. Clarkson periodically re-uses, with proper attribution, from earlier articles. The dossier omitted these attributions in an attempt to persuade the P&amp;T committee not to renew Dr. Clarkson&rsquo;s contract.&rdquo;<a href="https://www.campusreform.org/?ID=10754" style="text-decoration:none;">[RELATED: Conservative prof fights back against accusations of &#39;white supremacy&#39;]</a>According to the Friday press release, the professor&rsquo;s firing has also &ldquo;cost his family their health insurance, which Clarkson had pre-paid out of his own pocket while on leave of absence from the university.&rdquo;&nbsp;&ldquo;Now his son, who is recovering from a hit-and-run accident involving a suspected illegal alien, is uninsured,&rdquo; the press release added.In a previous statement to Campus Reform, a New Mexico State University spokesperson said that the school does not comment on pending litigation.&nbsp;Follow this author on Facebook: <a href="https://www.facebook.com/vladimirovnikitav" style="text-decoration:none;">Nikita Vladimirov</a> and Twitter:&nbsp;<a href="http://www.twitter.com/nikvofficial" style="text-decoration:none;">@nikvofficial</a>

Conservative prof adds felony claim to lawsuit against NMSU

Comedians are becoming increasingly reluctant to perform on college campuses due to a sensitive culture of political correctness, and college bookers don&#39;t seem to mind.According to <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kBu3g4kiwck" style="text-decoration:none;">VICE News&nbsp;report</a> published last week, several successful comedians, including Judy Gold, Jerry Seinfeld, and Chris Rock, now avoid going to college campuses because their jokes can be deemed offensive.&nbsp;<a href="https://www.campusreform.org/?ID=7879" style="text-decoration:none;">[RELATED: Comedians &lsquo;appalled&rsquo; by humorless college students]</a>&ldquo;Why is it that everyone has to adjust to everyone else? Don&rsquo;t hire me if you don&rsquo;t want to hear what I have to say,&rdquo; Gold told the publication.When asked to explain how she would react if her jokes offended an audience member, Gold pointed out that broad jokes about traumatic experiences are not meant to target individuals in the audience.&nbsp;&ldquo;The joke is not about you. You have to learn how to be in this world. The world doesn&rsquo;t have to adjust for you,&rdquo; she told VICE. &ldquo;You don&rsquo;t tell a comic what topics they can discuss on stage; it&rsquo;s ridiculous. When people tell me not to do something, it makes me want to do it.&rdquo;According to the report, the content of a comedian&rsquo;s campus performances is often decided by university bookers, who also negotiate the terms of the contract with comics who wish to do standup for students.&nbsp;&ldquo;Every time we put our label, or any time we put our name on an event it is now an extension of an entire campus climate that we are trying to create,&rdquo; Kat Michael, a Simmons College booker, told VICE.&ldquo;When I am working on a contract, especially with the comedian, I&rsquo;m very upfront in saying, &lsquo;you know, transphobic language isn&rsquo;t going to be tolerated&mdash;if you say something in your set, like, we reserve the right in our contract to have a conversation with you about payment and I will also pull the microphone,&rdquo; Michael added.<a href="https://www.campusreform.org/?ID=9907" style="text-decoration:none;">[RELATED: Comedian loses UConn gig after comments on transgender toddler]</a>The booker explained that comedians who have made offensive jokes on sensitive topics in the past would be asked to remove them from the performance, if they were even invited to campus at all.&nbsp;&ldquo;[If] I knew that this comic had a bit [where] they made light of sexual assault, I would either ask them to completely remove that from the set or we just wouldn&#39;t book them. And that&rsquo;s happened before,&rdquo; Michael said.Katy Hamm, a Lesley University booker, also told VICE that she would not invite a comedian to campus if she knew that the comic made jokes about topics such as sexual assault.&ldquo;I would never book a comic that made jokes about sexual assault because I know a lot of my students have experienced it,&rdquo; she said, later adding that &ldquo;18-21 year olds now are more diverse than they have ever been,&rdquo; and that college bookers &ldquo;are just conduits for their voice.&rdquo;When pressed by VICE to elaborate on why diverse voices seem to say the same thing, Hamm clarified that students are diverse &ldquo;in the way that is &lsquo;respect me and my identity and my experience,&rsquo; and there is just more experiences now.&rdquo;When interviewed by the publication, one Lesley student proudly noted that the school is &ldquo;a safe place,&rdquo; adding that &ldquo;you just never know what&rsquo;s going to happen&rdquo; off campus, but &ldquo;when I&rsquo;m here I feel safe and accepted and welcomed.&rdquo;&nbsp;&ldquo;My number one priority in my job is also to reduce student harm as much as humanly possible,&rdquo; Michael told VICE, arguing that students can sometimes be harmed by jokes.<a href="https://www.campusreform.org/?ID=9335" style="text-decoration:none;">[RELATED: TRIGGER WARNING: Carolla, Prager team up to tackle safe spaces]</a>That sort of sentiment has driven many comedians to take issue with the environment on college campuses in recent years, criticizing schools for being overly politically correct.&nbsp;In 2015, for example, Jerry Seinfeld&nbsp;<a href="https://www.campusreform.org/?ID=6558" style="text-decoration:none;">told ESPNU</a> that his colleagues frequently warn him to not perform in front of college students.&nbsp;&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t play colleges but I hear a lot of people tell me, &lsquo;Don&rsquo;t go near colleges, they&rsquo;re so pc,&rsquo;&rdquo; he said at the time. &ldquo;My daughter&rsquo;s 14. My wife says to her, &lsquo;Well, you know, in the next couple of years, I think maybe you&rsquo;re going to want to hang around the city more on the weekends so you can see boys.&rsquo; You know, my daughter says, &lsquo;That&rsquo;s sexist.&rsquo; They just want to use these words. &lsquo;That&rsquo;s racist. That&rsquo;s sexist. That&rsquo;s prejudice.&rsquo; They don&rsquo;t even know what they&rsquo;re talking about.&rdquo;In 2016, comedian Karith Foster also&nbsp;<a href="https://www.campusreform.org/?ID=7879" style="text-decoration:none;">told&nbsp;Campus Reform</a> that she was &quot;appalled&quot; by the college students&rsquo; inability to see humor in unfamiliar concepts.&ldquo;As someone who has performed on college campuses, both doing comedy and I also have a diversity engagement program called Stereotyped 101, I recognize just how incredibly important it is for people to be able to have a voice,&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;Without that ability, communication comes to a halt. And when that happens, there is a breakdown in society.&rdquo;Follow this author on Facebook: <a href="https://www.facebook.com/vladimirovnikitav" style="text-decoration:none;">Nikita Vladimirov</a> and Twitter:&nbsp;<a href="http://www.twitter.com/nikvofficial" style="text-decoration:none;">@nikvofficial</a>

PC culture causes growing rift between colleges, comedians

A conservative professor who was recently fired by New Mexico State University is suing the school for allegedly discriminating against him based on his political and religious identity.&nbsp;According to a press release obtained by&nbsp;Campus Reform, Gavin Clarkson, a former Trump administration official and a professor of business law, filed a lawsuit against the university on May 18 alleging &ldquo;wrongful termination, breach of contract, denial of due process, defamation, creation of a hostile work environment, and racial and religious discrimination.&rdquo;The press release further contends that the university administrators targeted the scholar &ldquo;because he is a conservative pro-life Christian and also an enrolled tribal member running as a Republican for Congress.&rdquo;<a href="https://www.campusreform.org/?ID=10754" style="text-decoration:none;">[RELATED: Conservative prof fights back against accusations of &#39;white supremacy&#39;]</a>&ldquo;Among other things, Clarkson&rsquo;s suit seeks a temporary restraining order enjoining NMSU from processing his termination until all internal appeal processes have been exhausted,&rdquo; the press release states, asserting that &ldquo;NMSU did not wait for administrative appeals to conclude before abruptly terminating Dr. Clarkson&rsquo;s employment in direct violation of their own regulations and procedures.&rdquo;The lawsuit is the latest development in a lengthy standoff between Clarkson and the university administration that was sparked by the school&rsquo;s abrupt termination of the professor&rsquo;s leave following his resignation from the Department of the Interior&rsquo;s Bureau of Indian Affairs.While the NMSU provost argued in a letter to Clarkson that the leave was specific to his position in the Trump administration, the professor refused to return to campus, citing a portion of the school&rsquo;s policy stating that &ldquo;all conditions of professional leave without pay...must be in writing prior to the leave period.&rdquo;&ldquo;Given that I have a written leave until 2020 I figured &hellip; I will just stay on leave and go run for Congress,&rdquo; Clarkson told&nbsp;Campus Reform in February. &ldquo;Well, the partisan Democrats in the administration could not tolerate a conservative Christian American-Indian Republican running for Congress who happened to be identified as an NMSU professor.&rdquo;&ldquo;I announced on January 8th. On January 12th&hellip;I get a letter from a provost saying he is unilaterally cancelling my leave,&rdquo; Clarkson revealed, claiming that both the provost and the general counsel at NMSU are registered Democrats.&nbsp;&ldquo;The rule of law applies to Democrats, too; they just don&rsquo;t like it,&rdquo; he remarked, later adding that the administrators were trying to &ldquo;schedule me for classes that were going to make it absolutely impossible for me to run an effective campaign.&rdquo;<a href="https://www.campusreform.org/?ID=10712" style="text-decoration:none;">[RELATED: Flyers defame conservative prof as a &lsquo;white supremacist&rsquo;]</a>The press release obtained by&nbsp;Campus Reform notes that &ldquo;NMSU&rsquo;s Provost and General Counsel, both partisan Democrats, initiated the process of cancelling Dr. Clarkson&rsquo;s leave and attempting to terminate his position four days after Clarkson announced his candidacy for Congress.&rdquo;In April, and despite the ongoing appeal process, Clarkson was terminated from his position and given an opportunity to be reinstated, but only if he remains in his office on campus even when he does not have scheduled classes.&nbsp;&ldquo;This &#39;office arrest&#39; offer was clearly meant to stop me from continuing my congressional campaign,&rdquo; Clarkson argued. &ldquo;No other faculty member at NMSU has ever been &lsquo;confined to the reservation&rsquo; in this manner.&rdquo;In addition to alleged wrongful termination, Clarkson is also claiming that some university officials have targeted him for his political beliefs.&nbsp;Prior to filing his lawsuit, the professor claimed that he did not have any major issues with NMSU until some of his colleagues and university administrators found out that he attended President Trump&rsquo;s inauguration.&nbsp;&ldquo;I have happened to not have any major hits or damage to my career until I went to the Trump inauguration,&rdquo; the professor said in an interview with&nbsp;Campus Reform at the time. &ldquo;I skipped a faculty meeting to go to the Trump inauguration and almost immediately some of the radical leftist faculty members just could not handle that.&rdquo;&nbsp;<a href="https://www.campusreform.org/?ID=10751" style="text-decoration:none;">[RELATED: Prof accuses Jewish academic of backing Nazi-style eugenics]</a>Clarkson further argued that the revelation of his political beliefs triggered a hostile response from some of his liberal colleagues, one of whom allegedly attempted to get him fired by accusing Clarkson of plagiarizing his own work. &nbsp;&ldquo;I actually had a very liberal radical [colleague] attempt to have me fired from the university for going to Trump&rsquo;s inauguration,&rdquo; he claimed. &ldquo;But, obviously you can&#39;t just fire somebody for going to the inauguration so what she did is she spread a false allegation of plagiarism.&rdquo;&ldquo;The thing is,&rdquo; he noted, &ldquo;I am the nation&rsquo;s leading scholar of tribal finance, so the person they accused me of plagiarism is me.&rdquo;&nbsp;According to the list of factual claims obtained by&nbsp;Campus Reform, the lawsuit contends that &ldquo;such accusations are often made by leftists against conservative academics.&rdquo; &nbsp;&ldquo;Since Dr. Clarkson is the nation&rsquo;s leading scholar in tribal finance, however, they were unable to document any cases of actual plagiarism and instead compiled a dossier alleging &lsquo;self-plagiarism,&rsquo;&rdquo; the document noted. &ldquo;The fake dossier contained passages that Dr. Clarkson periodically re-uses, with proper attribution, from earlier articles. The dossier omitted these attributions in an attempt to persuade the P&amp;T committee not to renew Dr. Clarkson&rsquo;s contract.&rdquo;<a href="https://www.campusreform.org/?ID=10770" style="text-decoration:none;">[RELATED: Marquette devotes website, ads to disputing conservative prof]</a>Additionally, the lawsuit alleges that university officials &ldquo;refused to turn over relevant documents for the hearing process, made demonstrably false statements under oath, and barred prior access to witnesses during the first administrative hearing that resulted in a ruling against Clarkson.&rdquo;&ldquo;The fact that partisan Democrats are afraid of me is an indication that I am a candidate they don&rsquo;t want on the ballot in November,&rdquo; Clarkson told&nbsp;Campus Reform on Wednesday. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s very clear, partisan Democrats do not want me on the ballot...because I am the candidate who will defeat them.&rdquo;&nbsp;In a statement to&nbsp;Campus Reform, a New Mexico State University official said that the school &nbsp;does not comment on pending litigation.Follow this author on Facebook: <a href="https://www.facebook.com/vladimirovnikitav" style="text-decoration:none;">Nikita Vladimirov</a> and Twitter:&nbsp;<a href="http://www.twitter.com/nikvofficial" style="text-decoration:none;">@nikvofficial</a>

Conservative prof claims he was fired over political beliefs

Students at Rutgers Law School are condemning two campus organizations for making an &ldquo;intimidating&rdquo; suggestion that President Trump deserves a Nobel Peace Prize.&nbsp;The students voiced their objection to a statement filed by the Rutgers Student Bar Association (SBA) Safety and Wellness Committee and the Federalist Society in early May, supporting &ldquo;the movement for...Trump to win the Nobel Peace prize for his efforts towards securing peace on the Korean peninsula.&rdquo;&nbsp;<a href="https://www.campusreform.org/?ID=10892" style="text-decoration:none;">[RELATED: VIDEO: Students say Trump doesn&#39;t deserve Nobel, but Obama does]</a>&ldquo;If the President were to preside over the verifiable destruction of the North&#39;s nuclear and missile programs, formally end the Korean War, and usher in the destruction of the World&#39;s last Cold War-era frontier, Trump would claim a feat that has eluded all of his most recent predecessors,&rdquo; the statement argued.&nbsp;<img src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/campusreform/10904/SBAStatement2.JPG" style="width: 600px;" class="fr-fic fr-dib">The provocative joint declaration, however, was not received well by multiple student organizations, which penned a joint response letter blasting the two groups and labeling their statement as &ldquo;harmful&rdquo; and &ldquo;dangerous.&rdquo;&nbsp;&ldquo;On May 2, 2018, the Federalist Society and the SBA Safety and Wellness Committee issued a joint statement supporting Donald Trump&rsquo;s nomination for the Nobel Peace Prize,&rdquo; the students wrote. &ldquo;Many students on our campus felt that we needed to raise our voices in opposition to such a harmful statement.&rdquo;&nbsp;&ldquo;Although we support freedom of expression, we do not condone unilateral, damaging statements masquerading as representative of our entire student body,&rdquo; they continued. &ldquo;Furthermore, this particular statement is made at the expense of students who experience the structural inequality of the Trump administration.&rdquo;The students went on to outline several key reasons as to why they oppose giving the prize to Trump, including an assertion that the law school &ldquo;is made up of a diverse student body, many of whom have been threatened or harmed by Trump&rsquo;s statements and policies.&rdquo;<a href="https://www.campusreform.org/?ID=8185" style="text-decoration:none;">[RELATED: Female student attacked for wearing Trump hat on campus]</a>The pro-Trump declaration, however, was actually intended to elicit just such a response, coming just days after the SBA&rsquo;s Social Equity Committee issued an unauthorized statement publicly backing the local Ramapough Mountain Indians in their <a href="https://www.northjersey.com/story/news/bergen/mahwah/2018/01/25/mahwah-may-take-ramapough-lenape-nation-court-again/1063504001/" style="text-decoration:none;">legal dispute</a> with Mahwah Township.<img src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/campusreform/10904/SBAStatement1.jpg" style="width: 300px;" class="fr-fic fr-dib">In a separate statement, SBA President John DeLuca stressed that SBA members do not have the constitutional power to make political statements on behalf of the entire organization without bringing the matter to a vote, something he said he brought up with Social Equity Committee Chair Omar Rana after his committee issued the unapproved statement.Upon determining that Rana had no intention of revising the document, and concluding that &ldquo;my internal methods of resolution were exhausted,&rdquo; DeLuca sought to make his point by demonstrating why it is important to follow the protocols outlined in the SBA Constitution.<img src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/campusreform/10904/SBAStatement3.JPG" style="width: 600px;" class="fr-fic fr-dib"><img src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/campusreform/10904/SBAStatement4.JPG" style="width: 600px;" class="fr-fic fr-dib">The pro-Trump statement, he said, was intended to &ldquo;gain your attention and to ignite a discussion on this precise topic.&rdquo;&ldquo;It was wildly successful in doing so,&rdquo; DeLuca pointed out. &ldquo;It appears that many individuals only want rules and procedures enforced when it is convenient to their own beliefs and agendas. Beyond that, it appears that many individuals do not want to even hear or contemplate beliefs and ideas contrary to their own.&rdquo;<a href="https://www.campusreform.org/?ID=10890" style="text-decoration:none;">[RELATED: Leftists call cops to report conservative free speech event]</a>&ldquo;That statement was written in support of a community that the Social Equity Committee was designed to represent, as indigenous people in the United States have been victims, for centuries, of degradation and genocide,&rdquo; the students countered in their response to the pro-Trump letter. &ldquo;When the Social Equity Committee was asked by a member of SBA to backtrack on this statement, they declined because at that point it had already been shared and supported by Ramapough Nation&rsquo;s leaders.&rdquo;In the conclusion of their letter, the student groups reiterated their disdain for the pro-Trump statement, calling it an &ldquo;intimidating&rdquo; action that has &ldquo;no place&rdquo; in Rutgers.&nbsp;<img src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/campusreform/10904/SBAStatement5.JPG" style="width: 600px;" class="fr-fic fr-dib">&ldquo;The recent statement by the Safety &amp; Wellness Committee supporting Donald Trump not only falls outside the scope of the Committee&rsquo;s mission, it is also a reaction to a matter that should have been dealt with internally and not in a public forum,&rdquo; they wrote. &ldquo;Intimidating actions such as these have no place in SBA, nor in Rutgers Law School.&rdquo;The statement was signed by several organizations, including the Association of Latin American Law Students, Asian Pacific American Law Students Association, LGBTQ+ Caucus, Muslim Law Students Association, If/When/How: Lawyering for Reproductive Justice, National Lawyers Guild, Immigrant Rights Collective, Street Law, and Public Interest Law Students Association.Follow this author on Facebook: <a href="https://www.facebook.com/vladimirovnikitav" style="text-decoration:none;">Nikita Vladimirov</a> and Twitter:&nbsp;<a href="http://www.twitter.com/nikvofficial" style="text-decoration:none;">@nikvofficial</a>

Students blast 'intimidating' endorsement of Nobel for Trump

The American Association of University Professors (AAUP) has concluded that political pressure is the only explanation for the dismissal of a professor who harassed a conservative student.&ldquo;An investigative report is out today in a case that crystallizes the current right-wing assault on higher education,&rdquo; the AAUP&nbsp;<a href="https://www.aaup.org/news/aaup-releases-investigation-campus-protest-case#.WvWcY4gvyUk" style="text-decoration:none;">announced on its website</a>. &ldquo;It involves issues that the AAUP has been working on intensively this year: faculty harassment and exaggerated controversies over free speech on campus.&rdquo;<a href="https://www.aaup.org/report/academic-freedom-and-tenure-university-nebraska-lincoln" style="text-decoration:none;">The report</a> focuses on Courtney Lawton, a teaching assistant at the University of Nebraska&ndash;Lincoln (UNL) who joined several other faculty members in protesting the president of UNL&rsquo;s Turning Point USA chapter (TPUSA), Katie Mullen, while she tried to recruit new members on campus.&nbsp;While the other instructors settled for holding handmade signs critical of TPUSA, Lawton made the protest personal, standing in front of Mullen&rsquo;s table with her middle finger extended and yelling, &ldquo;neo-fascist Becky right here. Wants to destroy public schools, public universities, hates DACA kids.&rdquo;According to the AAUP, Lawton insists that she &ldquo;never addressed [her] shouting&rdquo; directly at Mullen, though the report also notes that another professor who was participating in the protest, Amanda Gailey, suggested that Lawton &ldquo;tone down&rdquo; her behavior after noticing that Mullen had begun to cry.<a href="https://www.campusreform.org/?ID=9649" style="text-decoration:none;">[RELATED: Profs bully TPUSA prez while she recruits on campus]</a>Following that altercation, state lawmakers demanded that UNL&nbsp;<a href="https://www.campusreform.org/?ID=10077" style="text-decoration:none;">explain its apparent hostility toward conservative students</a>, and one state senator even said that Gailey&nbsp;<a href="https://www.campusreform.org/?ID=9729" style="text-decoration:none;">should be &ldquo;fired immediately&rdquo;</a> for her role in the demonstration.The university vehemently denied any institutional hostility toward conservatives, but subsequently informed Lawton that&nbsp;<a href="https://www.campusreform.org/?ID=10170" style="text-decoration:none;">her employment would be terminated</a> at the end of the spring semester, though it did not announce any sanctions against her less-exuberant colleagues.In&nbsp;<a href="https://bloximages.newyork1.vip.townnews.com/omaha.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/3/b0/3b0be4f6-cbfb-11e7-9de3-fb15be82f3e5/5a0f8587c4b3c.pdf.pdf" style="text-decoration:none;">a letter to elected officials</a>, University of Nebraska President Hank Bounds said that the teaching assistant (Lawton) who had &ldquo;mistreated&rdquo; a student would no longer be teaching at UNL, but the AAUP report insists that Lawton&rsquo;s dismissal was really a capitulation to political pressure.&ldquo;While Lawton was under vicious attack for her protest speech, state legislators launched a campaign of political pressure on the university, suggesting that Lawton&rsquo;s conduct toward the student staffing the recruitment table was representative of a campus climate hostile to conservative views and calling for her dismissal,&rdquo; the AAUP argues.&nbsp;The organization also slammed the the Nebraska Republican Party for filing &ldquo;open-records requests for email correspondence related to the case,&rdquo; and portrayed the free-speech legislation that was introduced to protect students on campus as &ldquo;a clear example of legislative overreach.&rdquo;<a href="https://www.campusreform.org/?ID=10077" style="text-decoration:none;">[RELATED: Lawmakers demand to know why UNL is hostile to conservatives]</a>The report also condemns UNL for the way that it handled Lawton&rsquo;s dismissal, alleging that it violated principles of academic freedom by suspending her from teaching for the balance of her contract, rather than going through the process of a formal hearing.&ldquo;The conclusion seems inescapable that the basis for Ms. Lawton&rsquo;s dismissal was related to the political content of her speech and thus may have violated her academic freedom, a conclusion that stands unrebutted absent the affordance of a dismissal hearing,&rdquo; the AAUP states.&nbsp;Notably, however, the report acknowledges early on that within days of the confrontation, Bounds posted a statement to Twitter asserting that the behavior of a &ldquo;UNL faculty member&rdquo; was &ldquo;unprofessional&rdquo; and &ldquo;not in keeping with the standards of conduct.&rdquo;The AAUP dismisses that interpretation, though, contending that Lawton &ldquo;was protesting the presence of the TPUSA table in her capacity as a citizen, not in her capacity as a teacher or researcher, and outside her employment relationship with the university.&rdquo;<a href="https://www.campusreform.org/?ID=10170" style="text-decoration:none;">[RELATED: Lecturer dismissed after harassing conservative student]</a>In its press release announcing the findings of the report, the AAUP argues that &ldquo;campaigns of targeted harassment against individual faculty members and legislative attempts to impose misguided rules on institutions of higher education are on the rise&rdquo; in America.&nbsp;&ldquo;The AAUP believes that democracy thrives on dissent, critical inquiry, free speech, and free research,&rdquo; the report concludes. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s why we investigated the case at the University of Nebraska and why we&rsquo;ve developed resources for you to use in fighting harassment of faculty and misleading &lsquo;free-speech&rsquo; legislation on your own campus.&rdquo;<a href="http://www.omaha.com/news/education/higher-education/national-faculty-group-rebukes-unl-for-bowing-to-political-pressure/article_0aa30e14-0d33-5746-a81c-954bfcd6c6d8.html" style="text-decoration:none;">According to&nbsp;The Omaha World-Herald</a>, the matter could come up again during the AAUP&rsquo;s&nbsp;<a href="https://www.aaup.org/event/2018-annual-conference" style="text-decoration:none;">annual meeting</a> in June should a committee recommend adding UNL to the list of 56 colleges and universities that have been &ldquo;censured&rdquo; by the organization.The AAUP&rsquo;s website&nbsp;<a href="https://www.aaup.org/issues/academic-freedom/whatiscensure" style="text-decoration:none;">explains</a> that when an investigating committee submits a report, such as the one addressing the situation at UNL, the &ldquo;Committee A on Academic Freedom and Tenure&rdquo; reviews the report, suggest revisions, and decides whether to ask the full organization to vote on censure.<a href="https://www.aaup.org/our-programs/academic-freedom/censure-list" style="text-decoration:none;">Censure by the AAUP</a> does not carry any actual ramifications, serving merely to inform AAUP members of &ldquo;unsatisfactory conditions&rdquo; so that they can decide whether they wish to &ldquo;refrain from accepting appointment to an institution so long as it remains on the censure list.&rdquo;Follow this author on Facebook: <a href="https://www.facebook.com/vladimirovnikitav" style="text-decoration:none;">Nikita Vladimirov</a> and Twitter:&nbsp;<a href="http://www.twitter.com/nikvofficial" style="text-decoration:none;">@nikvofficial</a>

Report blasts UNL for dismissing lecturer who bullied student

Speech First, a national watchdog group that fights to protect free expression, is launching a legal challenge against the University of Michigan&rsquo;s speech code and bias response team.The nonprofit membership association filed its first lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan on Tuesday, pledging &ldquo;to help restore free speech and expression to America&rsquo;s universities.&rdquo;<a href="https://www.campusreform.org/?ID=10587" style="text-decoration:none;">[RELATED: New group emerges to defend free speech on campus]</a>&ldquo;The University of Michigan has a disciplinary code that prohibits &lsquo;harassment&rsquo; and &lsquo;bullying,&rsquo; and increases the penalties if such actions are motivated by &lsquo;bias,&rsquo;&rdquo; the group explained in a press release. &ldquo;As used, these concepts capture staggering amounts of protected speech and expression given that Michigan defines harassment as &lsquo;unwanted negative attention perceived as intimidating, demeaning, or bothersome to an individual.&rsquo;&rdquo;&ldquo;Worse still, Michigan has created a Bias Response Team [BRT] that receives complaints of &lsquo;bias&rsquo; and &lsquo;bias incidents&rsquo; from offended students and is tasked with investigating and punishing those who commit offenses,&rdquo; Speech First added.The 52-page legal complaint provided to&nbsp;Campus Reform blasts the university for its speech policies, arguing that its bias response team and the speech code both violate the U.S. Constitution.&ldquo;The BRT and its highly subjective definitions of &lsquo;bias&rsquo; and &lsquo;bias incident&rsquo; pose a grave threat to free expression at the University, and are unconstitutional under the doctrines of overbreadth, vagueness, and prior restraints,&rdquo; the document reads.According to the group&rsquo;s statement, Speech First members enrolled at the school &ldquo;have abstained from speaking on topics including immigration, identity politics, and abortion because they fear their speech will be anonymously reported as offensive, biased, and/or hateful to university authorities through the bias response system.&rdquo;<a href="https://www.campusreform.org/?ID=10864" style="text-decoration:none;">[RELATED: Vocal group reported to PC police for mariachi-themed flyer]</a>Nicole Neily, president and founder of Speech First, criticized the notion of bias response teams, arguing that they have &ldquo;no place on college campuses&rdquo; and are &ldquo;fundamentally un-American.&rdquo;&ldquo;We have an epidemic on our hands in the higher education system&mdash;universities are establishing rules and protocols that create a dangerous environment in which free speech protections under the First Amendment no longer exist,&rdquo; she warned.&nbsp;The University of Michigan did not immediately respond to&nbsp;Campus Reform&rsquo;s&nbsp;request for comment.&nbsp;Follow this author on Facebook: <a href="https://www.facebook.com/vladimirovnikitav" style="text-decoration:none;">Nikita Vladimirov</a> and Twitter:&nbsp;<a href="http://www.twitter.com/nikvofficial" style="text-decoration:none;">@nikvofficial</a>

Watchdog takes UMich to court over 'subjective' speech code

The University of Vermont&rsquo;s Bias Response Team sent out a campus-wide alert after a student group featured mariachi musicians in a promotional flyer.In an email sent to the student body Friday, the&nbsp;Bias Response Team (BRT) formally condemned the &ldquo;Top Cats&rdquo; a capella group for posting an event flyer highlighting their Senior Show that &ldquo;had the faces of three senior members superimposed on the bodies of what appears to be Mexican mariachi band members.&rdquo;<a href="https://www1.campusreform.org/?ID=10825" style="text-decoration:none;">[RELATED: Students target frats for &lsquo;cultural appropriation&rsquo;]</a>&ldquo;Since receiving a Bias, Discrimination, and Harassment Incident Report, the Office of Affirmative Action and Equal Opportunity (AAEO) and the Bias Response Team (BRT) have been reviewing the information provided, and have conducted outreach to gather more information about the nature of this incident and the impact on community members, especially those members who identify as Mexican and/or Latinx,&rdquo; the email explained.&nbsp;The BRT argued that while &ldquo;the image on the flyer may seem benign to some,&rdquo; the officials &ldquo;recognize the impact this incident may have had on some of our campus community, and in particular our Latinx members.&rdquo;&ldquo;To some, the image on the flyer inadvertently supports racism and further perpetuates cultural appropriation, which dishonors the deep legacy and richness of Mexican culture,&rdquo; the BRT underscored.On April 27, the group published a <a href="https://www.facebook.com/UVMTopCats/posts/10156192006624336" style="text-decoration:none;">formal statement</a> on Facebook apologizing for posting the flyer and stressing that the organization never intended to appropriate Mexican culture.&ldquo;We in no way intended to perpetuate harmful cultural stereotypes, and lacked the foresight to assume the poster was inherently an appropriation of Mexican culture,&rdquo; they wrote. &ldquo;We are taking strong steps to educate and integrate stronger values of cultural competence, sensitivity, and social justice in the hope that we can align ourselves more readily with the common ground of the University. We have ceased promotion of the image and would be open to having a discussion of these issues with any interested parties.&rdquo;<img src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/campusreform/10864/UVMTopCats.jpg" style="width: 600px;" class="fr-fic fr-dib">According to the BRT email, the apology was made after the group was notified of the &ldquo;impact&rdquo; that the advertisement had on UVM students.The bias response team also lauded the Top Cats&rsquo; effort to remedy the situation, noting that the student has met with numerous campus organization, including the Student Government Association (SGA), this week.&ldquo;Their meeting created a space for them to hear multiple perspectives, take responsibility for their actions, and generate new ideas about educational trainings for student organizations,&rdquo; BRT wrote. &ldquo;We applaud their continued dialogue and will support them as desired.&rdquo;<a href="https://www1.campusreform.org/?ID=10825" style="text-decoration:none;">[RELATED: Students criticize &#39;Mikado&#39; play for &#39;cultural appropriation&#39;]</a>The University of Vermont did not immediately respond to Campus Reform&rsquo;s&nbsp;request for comment, but Speech First President Nicole Neily offered an extensive critique of the school&rsquo;s &ldquo;well-intentioned&rdquo; initiative.&ldquo;Although well-intentioned, Bias Response Teams chill protected speech and expression, and degrade the educational experience by encouraging silence instead of dialogue,&rdquo; she told&nbsp;Campus Reform. &ldquo;Students voicing controversial or unpopular opinions, or seeking to engage in humor, satire, or parody may credibly fear that the BRT will be summoned in response to their speech and that they will be forced to defend themselves against accusations of &lsquo;bias.&rsquo;&rdquo;Neily also pointed out that &ldquo;UVM&#39;s <a href="https://cm.maxient.com/reportingform.php?UnivofVermontAAEO&layout_id=5" style="text-decoration:none;">definition of bias</a> is particularly broad,&rdquo; specifically reserving the right to punish incidents that &ldquo;&lsquo;do not meet the necessary elements required to prove a crime or a violation of University policy.&rsquo;&rdquo;&ldquo;In addressing problems, the school <a href="https://www.uvm.edu/deanofstudents/bias_response_program" style="text-decoration:none;">notes</a> that remedies may include &lsquo;education, restorative practices, community dialogue, formal processes through institutional offices (e.g., review, investigation, resolution), and/or referral to local law enforcement,&rsquo;&rdquo; she added. &ldquo;These measures stigmatize students as wrongdoers, impose unwanted burdens on students&rsquo; time, and distract them from studies &amp; other activities. In addition, protected speech and expression will be chilled regardless of whether a student is ultimately exonerated at the end of the BRT process.&rdquo;Follow this author on Facebook: <a href="https://www.facebook.com/vladimirovnikitav" style="text-decoration:none;">Nikita Vladimirov</a> and Twitter:&nbsp;<a href="http://www.twitter.com/nikvofficial" style="text-decoration:none;">@nikvofficial</a>

Vocal group reported to PC police for mariachi-themed flyer

A University of California, Berkeley task force is blaming conservative students for destructive protests on campus, saying that hosting conservative speakers was &ldquo;likely to incite a violent reaction.&rdquo;The report was <a href="https://chancellor.berkeley.edu/sites/default/files/report_of_the_commission_on_free_speech.pdf" style="text-decoration:none;">filed on April 10</a> by a <a href="https://chancellor.berkeley.edu/task-forces/commission-free-speech" style="text-decoration:none;">Commission on Free Speech</a> that Chancellor Carol Christ created last October to &ldquo;analyze events featuring external speakers&rdquo; on campus in the wake of a series of disruptive protests against planned appearances by speakers such as Ben Shapiro, Milo Yiannopoulos, and Ann Coulter.&ldquo;Although those speakers had every right to speak and were entitled to protection, they did not need to be on campus to exercise the right of free speech,&rdquo; the commission declares, speculating that they were only invited &ldquo;in order to advance a facile narrative that universities are not tolerant of conservative speech.&rdquo;<a href="https://www.campusreform.org/?ID=10465" style="text-decoration:none;">[RELATED: One year later, Berkeley hasn&#39;t changed]</a>&ldquo;The Commission was charged with &lsquo;developing a set of recommendations that preserve the campus&rsquo;s firm commitment to free expression while reducing the likelihood of such expression disrupting the mission of education, research, and public service,&rsquo;&rdquo; the report explains, referencing the objectives set by Christ .According to the document, the commission was formed in October 2017 following a wave of protest against conservative speakers who were invited to lecture at the university. The commission specifically highlights the difference between the polite reception Shapiro received when he visited campus on April 11, 2016 compared to his latest speech on campus in September of last year, which <a href="https://www.campusreform.org/?ID=9824" style="text-decoration:none;">cost the university approximately $600,000 in security</a>.&ldquo;Although of course many things changed during the 17 months between Shapiro&rsquo;s campus engagements, our conclusion is that the rise of ultra-conservative rhetoric, including white supremacist views and protest marches, legitimized by the 2016 presidential election and its aftermath, encouraged far-right and alt-right activists to &lsquo;spike the football&rsquo; at Berkeley,&rdquo; the commission writes.&ldquo;This provoked an at-times violent (and condemnable) response from the extreme left, tearing at the campus&rsquo;s social fabric,&rdquo; the document adds.The report goes on to contend that all of the events that sparked protests last year &ldquo;were sponsored by very small groups of students working closely with outside organizations,&rdquo; asserting that &ldquo;at least some of the 2017 events at Berkeley can now be seen to be part of a coordinated campaign to organize appearances on American campuses likely to incite a violent reaction, in order to advance a facile narrative that universities are not tolerant of conservative speech.&rdquo;<a href="https://www.campusreform.org/?ID=10589" style="text-decoration:none;">[RELATED: Microaggressions can be &lsquo;lethal,&rsquo; profs tell Berkeley students]</a>The task force further elaborates that while there is &ldquo;plausibility&rdquo; to the claim that Shapiro&rsquo;s visit was intended to &ldquo;broaden the political discourse&rdquo; on campus, many of its members believe that Yiannopoulos and Coulter only came to the university &ldquo;in pursuit of wealth and fame.&rdquo;&ldquo;We should, of course, be wary of painting with an overly broad brush,&rdquo; the report explained. &ldquo;In Shapiro&rsquo;s case, the claim that his invitation to campus was intended to broaden the political discourse has some plausibility, as his commitment to the issue long predates the polarizing 2016 election.&rdquo;&nbsp;&ldquo;Milo Yiannopoulos and Ann Coulter, however, expressed little interest in reasoned discussion of contentious issues or in defending or revising their views through argument,&rdquo; the commission continued. &ldquo;Many Commission members are skeptical of these speakers&rsquo; commitment to anything other than the pursuit of wealth and fame through the instigation of anger, fear, and vengefulness in their hard-right constituency.&rdquo;The university officials insist that &ldquo;speech of this kind is hard to defend&rdquo; due to &ldquo;the acute distress it caused (and was intended to cause) to staff and students, many of whom felt threatened and targeted by the speakers and by the outside groups financing their appearances.&rdquo;<a href="https://www.campusreform.org/?ID=9760" style="text-decoration:none;">[RELATED: Milo to bring &#39;16-man Navy SEAL security detail&#39; to Berkeley]</a>The report concedes that &ldquo;more than eighty years of First Amendment law would need to be overturned for the campus to legally prohibit potentially disruptive events that offer little value as contributions to campus discourse,&rdquo; saying its members have &ldquo;no appetite for instigating a legal battle over this issue.&rdquo;In an attempt to &ldquo;reduce the likelihood of disruptions&rdquo; at future campus events, however, the report includes a catalogue of policy recommendations that, according to the commission, would partially tackle the issue.&nbsp;&ldquo;The first [recommendation] is that the campus open a third free speech zone, West Crescent, and encourage non-departmental hosts to hold their events there,&rdquo; the report states, adding that the school may consider moving one of its speech zones to a new location as an alternative.Likewise, the authors of the report observe that for some UC Berkeley students and staff, the police presence during controversial campus events &ldquo;was intimidating and alienating.&rdquo;&ldquo;The Commission recognizes that the UCPD has an obligation to preserve the physical safety of everyone on campus, which may sometimes require a show of force,&rdquo; the report admits. &ldquo;Nonetheless, the Commission recommends that the campus take steps to make the police a less intimidating presence at controversial events.&rdquo;<a href="https://www.campusreform.org/?ID=10391" style="text-decoration:none;">[RELATED: UC-Berkeley sued for failing to intervene in violent riots]</a>Other recommendations include &ldquo;counterprogramming during disruptive events,&rdquo; &ldquo;improving communication about disruptive events,&rdquo; establishing a &ldquo;campuswide events database,&rdquo; and more.One of the final recommendations entails encouraging the administration to &ldquo;continue the steps that have already been undertaken to nurture a culture of reasoned engagement with a wide range of political and ideological viewpoints.&rdquo;A spokesperson for UC Berkeley, however, told&nbsp;Campus Reform that the report does not necessarily reflect school&rsquo;s official commission, and that its recommendations must still be evaluated by the administration.&ldquo;It has been only a few days since the report was completed and delivered to the Chancellor and her leadership team. Given the importance and complexity of the issues covered by the report, they intend to take the time necessary to carefully review and discuss the commission&rsquo;s findings and recommendations,&rdquo; the spokesperson explained. &ldquo;As part of her commitment to transparency and engagement, Chancellor Christ will keep the campus community informed about her plans to ensure our University maintains its unwavering support for Free Speech. &ldquo;And, just to clarify,&rdquo; the official added, &ldquo;the views expressed in the report are those of the commission and don&rsquo;t necessarily represent the perspectives of the Chancellor or her administration.&rdquo;Follow this author on Facebook: <a href="https://www.facebook.com/vladimirovnikitav" style="text-decoration:none;">Nikita Vladimirov</a> and Twitter:&nbsp;<a href="http://www.twitter.com/nikvofficial" style="text-decoration:none;">@nikvofficial</a>

Berkeley task force blames conservatives for leftist violence

Western Washington University (WWU) is urging students to contact the school&rsquo;s police department if they happen to spot an immigration enforcement official on campus.In an email obtained by Campus Reform, Vice President of Enrollment and Student Services Melynda Huskey sent out a memo to the students on Wednesday in an attempt to address concerns about Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).<a href="https://www.campusreform.org/?ID=10471" style="text-decoration:none;">[RELATED: Berkeley students panic after ICE vehicle spotted on campus]</a>&ldquo;This afternoon, concerns have been circulating that perhaps Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers have been active on our campus today,&rdquo; she wrote. &ldquo;Such rumors can be frightening and disruptive for our entire community, as students may fear for their own safety or the safety of others.&rdquo;According to the email, however, the university police chief had confirmed &ldquo;that ICE is not currently conducting operations on our campus.&rdquo;<img src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/campusreform/10856/WWUICEWarning.jpg" style="width: 800px;" class="fr-fic fr-dib">Huskey then went on to reiterate the school&rsquo;s policy toward ICE and other immigration agencies, stressing that &ldquo;our policy continues to be that Western does not enforce federal immigration law, nor does it undertake efforts with federal immigration authorities to investigate, detain, or arrest individuals.&rdquo;&ldquo;Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), or other third-party officials may not remove or interrogate a Western student or employee without a valid warrant signed by a judge,&rdquo; she continued. &ldquo;If you see a person whom you believe to be an ICE agent, please contact the University Police Department/Public Safety Office&hellip;&rdquo;<a href="https://www.campusreform.org/?ID=10208" style="text-decoration:none;">[RELATED: College trains students to &lsquo;document immigration raids&rsquo;]</a>The school&rsquo;s &ldquo;<a href="https://policy.wwu.edu/POL-U1000.13-Providing-Immigration-Information.pdf" style="text-decoration:none;">Interim Policy</a>&rdquo; referenced by Huskey states that federal immigration officials must have a warrant to access non-public portions of student educational records, and notes that university employees &ldquo;shall not collect information about immigration status [of students] unless required by law.&rdquo;&nbsp;Even when presented with a valid warrant, moreover, the policy dictates that &ldquo;employees are to immediately notify the Univeristy&rsquo;s [sic] Director of Public Safety and Assistant Attorney General&rsquo;s Office of any request by ICE, [Customs and Border Patrol], or other third party officerials [sic] seeking access to non-public portions of the University campus or student educational records.&rdquo;The university&rsquo;s email comes in the wake of nationwide debate over immigration and President Trump&rsquo;s call to tighten U.S. border security operations. Earlier this week, a caravan of about 200 migrants <a href="http://www.foxnews.com/us/2018/04/30/members-migrant-caravan-remain-defiant-after-us-again-denies-border-entry.html" style="text-decoration:none;">gathered on</a> the Mexico border with California, seeking to gain entry into the U.S.&nbsp;WWU did not immediately respond to Campus Reform&rsquo;s request for comment.&nbsp;Follow this author on Facebook: <a href="https://www.facebook.com/vladimirovnikitav" style="text-decoration:none;">Nikita Vladimirov</a> and Twitter:&nbsp;<a href="http://www.twitter.com/nikvofficial" style="text-decoration:none;">@nikvofficial</a>

School issues warning about 'rumors' of ICE agents on campus

The University of San Diego&rsquo;s Kroc School of Peace Studies is slated to host a screening of a political film that claims to examine &ldquo;the case of the stolen [2016] election.&rdquo;The screening is touted as an update to the 2016 film <a href="https://thebestdemocracymoneycanbuy.com/" style="text-decoration:none;">The Best Democracy Money Can Buy</a> by investigative journalist Greg Palast, who also boasts of exposing how Jeb Bush stole the 2000 election for George W. Bush.<a href="https://www.campusreform.org/?id=7935" style="text-decoration:none;">[RELATED: Duke prof compares voter ID laws to Jim Crow]</a>&ldquo;Join me on Tuesday, May 1 at 6pm at the University of San Diego for the SoCal premiere of the #TrumpStoleIt update of The Best Democracy Money Can Buy: The Case of the Stolen Election,&rdquo; Palast <a href="http://www.gregpalast.com/san-diego-premiere-the-case-of-the-stolen-election-feat-greg-palast-live/" style="text-decoration:none;">wrote on his website</a>.According to the event description, the screening will be co-sponsored by the USD Peace &amp; Justice Graduate Student Association, Activist San Diego, and KNSJ Radio Network for Social Justice.<img src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/campusreform/10842/StolenElectionFull.jpg" style="width: 600px;" class="fr-fic fr-dib">&ldquo;In September 2016, before US Presidential Elections, Palast released his movie...based on his New York Times bestselling books, predicting Donald Trump&rsquo;s election,&rdquo; the organizers of the event <a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/938577062989810/" style="text-decoration:none;">wrote on Facebook.</a> &ldquo;The film was a smash hit and continues to be shown all around the US as well as being used by grassroots activists as an organizing tool to fight voter suppression.&rdquo;According to <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ABgC7rN5elI" style="text-decoration:none;">the trailer for the film</a>, Palast will present the findings of his research into alleged voter fraud, arguing that there may have been a &ldquo;scheme&rdquo; to suppress the votes of &ldquo;innocent people.&rdquo;&ldquo;Is there really a gigantic conspiracy of one million Democrats to vote twice, or is it a massive scheme to take the votes of a million innocent people?&rdquo; Palast says in the trailer, later adding that the film is &ldquo;the story of the investigation of the theft of the 2016 election&mdash;It&#39;s a crime still in progress&mdash;and a hunt for the very rich guys behind the crime.&rdquo;<a href="https://www.campusreform.org/?ID=10743" style="text-decoration:none;">[RELATED: Sociology conference obsesses over hatred of Trump]</a>This is not the first time that the journalist has accused the Republicans of allegedly stealing the presidential election for themselves.On his personal website, Palast also notes that his reporting &ldquo;exposed how Katherine Harris and Jeb Bush purged thousands of Black voters from Florida rolls to steal the 2000 election for George Bush.&rdquo;The Kroc School of Peace Studies did not immediately return Campus Reform&rsquo;s request for comment.&nbsp;Follow this author on Facebook: <a href="https://www.facebook.com/vladimirovnikitav" style="text-decoration:none;">Nikita Vladimirov</a> and Twitter:&nbsp;<a href="http://www.twitter.com/nikvofficial" style="text-decoration:none;">@nikvofficial</a>

School to screen film alleging 2016 election 'stolen' by Trump

California State University, Fresno has announced that it will not punish professor Randa Jarrar for cheering the death of Barbara Bush on Twitter.In&nbsp;<a href="http://www.fresnostatenews.com/2018/04/24/president-joseph-i-castro-letter-on-conclusion-of-review-regarding-professor/" style="text-decoration:none;">a statement</a> released Tuesday, Fresno State President Joseph Castro said that the academic, who called the former First Lady a &ldquo;witch&rdquo; and an &ldquo;amazing racist&rdquo; in a lengthy series of tweets, will not be disciplined despite demonstrating &ldquo;insensitive&rdquo; and &ldquo;inappropriate&rdquo; behavior.&nbsp;Notably, when one user suggested that there might be consequences for her diatribe, Jarrar boasted that she &ldquo;will never be fired&rdquo; because she has tenure.<a href="https://www.campusreform.org/?ID=10799" style="text-decoration:none;">[RELATED: Prof cheers death of Barbara Bush, then hides behind tenure]</a>&ldquo;Immediately following Professor Jarrar&rsquo;s tweets last Tuesday, we carefully reviewed the facts and consulted with CSU counsel to determine whether we could take disciplinary action,&rdquo; Castro wrote.&nbsp;&ldquo;After completing this process, we have concluded that Professor Jarrar did not violate any CSU or university policies and that she was acting in a private capacity and speaking about a public matter on her personal Twitter account,&rdquo; he explained. &ldquo;Her comments, although disgraceful, are protected free speech under the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.&ldquo;Additionally, although Professor Jarrar used tenure to defend her behavior, this private action is an issue of free speech and not related to her job or tenure,&rdquo; Castro added. &ldquo;Therefore, the university does not have justification to support taking any disciplinary action.&rdquo;&nbsp;<a href="https://www.campusreform.org/?ID=9729" style="text-decoration:none;">[RELATED: State Sen. demands UNL fire prof who &lsquo;berated&rsquo; conservative students]</a>As of Wednesday morning, more than 59,000 people had signed a&nbsp;<a href="https://www.change.org/p/california-state-university-remove-randa-jarrar-from-fresno-state-university-for-racist-comments" style="text-decoration:none;">Change.org petition</a> urging the &ldquo;immediate termination of professor Randa Jarrar for racism and inflammatory comments regarding a former First Lady of the United States, Barbara Bush.&rdquo;The university announcement also drew outrage on social media, with hundreds of Twitter users rushing to condemn the administration.&ldquo;I will never again again support your university in any way,&rdquo;&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/jjlehman1031/status/988921374126129152" style="text-decoration:none;">one Twitter user wrote.</a> &ldquo;[M]y grandfather was a huge supporter always ready with his [checkbook], he would have some choice words for you. A very sad day for our community.&rdquo;<a href="https://www.campusreform.org/?ID=9660" style="text-decoration:none;">[RELATED: Prof suggests Texans deserve hurricane for supporting Trump]</a>Castro concluded his announcement by reiterating his support of free expression and arguing that &ldquo;Our duty as Americans and as educators is to promote a free exchange of diverse views, even if we disagree with them.&rdquo;&nbsp;&ldquo;At Fresno State, we encourage opinions and ideas to be expressed in a manner that informs, enlightens and educates without being disparaging of others,&rdquo; he wrote. &ldquo;It makes me proud when I see our students, faculty, and staff debate and learn from each other. This is how we boldly educate and empower our students to succeed.&rdquo;Fresno State did not immediately respond to&nbsp;Campus Reform&rsquo;s&nbsp;request for comment.&nbsp;Follow this author on Facebook: <a href="https://www.facebook.com/vladimirovnikitav" style="text-decoration:none;">Nikita Vladimirov</a> and Twitter:&nbsp;<a href="http://www.twitter.com/nikvofficial" style="text-decoration:none;">@nikvofficial</a>

Prof avoids punishment for mocking death of Barbara Bush

University of New Mexico students who are entering a free speech zone on campus are now being cautioned by a large trigger warning billboard outside of its perimeter.<a href="http://studentsforlife.org/2018/04/19/university-of-new-mexico-just-making-rules-up-now/" style="text-decoration:none;">According to Students for Life of America</a> (SFLA), the sign was discovered by one of the group&rsquo;s members who visited the university last week for a &ldquo;We Care&rdquo; display erected by the school&rsquo;s SFLA chapter.<a href="https://www.campusreform.org/?ID=10651" style="text-decoration:none;">[RELATED: University scraps &#39;trigger warnings&#39; for pro-life displays]</a>Images obtained by SFLA show a large sign proclaiming &ldquo;Free speech zone ahead,&rdquo; below which it warns students that &ldquo;topics discussed may be uncomfortable or controversial.&rdquo; Additionally, the sign explained that &ldquo;the topics and opinions discussed are those of private individuals and not the University of New Mexico.&rdquo;A spokesperson for UNM told SFLA that the sign was erected as part of a new policy requiring such billboards for any display erected by a student group, but denied that they are &ldquo;trigger warnings.&rdquo;Earlier this month, however, Ryan Lindquist, the director of the Student Activities Center,&nbsp;<a href="http://www.dailylobo.com/article/2018/04/free-speech" style="text-decoration:none;">told&nbsp;The Daily Lobo</a> that the signs do, in fact, serve as a &ldquo;trigger warning&rdquo; to students who may wish to avoid a controversial area on campus.&ldquo;Those signs were put there basically as a trigger warning for people who may be uncomfortable with the content that is being discussed,&rdquo; he explained, elaborating that &ldquo;those signs give people an opportunity to avoid or find a detour...to get around those spaces if they don&rsquo;t want to engage in that type of event. We look to protect our students and the right to free speech.&rdquo;Lindquist added that the school &ldquo;uses its &lsquo;Free Speech Zone&rsquo; signs for non-departmental and non-University sponsored events occurring on campus,&rdquo; saying the warnings &ldquo;are assisting UNM staff in conversations with our students around our free speech and First Amendment responsibility.&rdquo;<a href="https://www.campusreform.org/?ID=10651" style="text-decoration:none;">[RELATED: Cornell students protest pro-life views as &lsquo;traumatizing&rsquo;]</a>Despite the school&rsquo;s claims, though, SFLA contends that the policy does not appear to be consistently applied, and that some signs differ in content from others.&nbsp;&ldquo;For example, the hair-cutting event, which turned out to be a recruiting event to get students to sign up for the sexual assault awareness It&rsquo;s On Us campaign, had a different warning, and actually used the word &lsquo;trigger warning,&rsquo;&rdquo; the group explained.Other displays set up on campus that day, meanwhile, were devoid of such cautionary disclaimers, including a table for a Sign Language club and a homebrewing club.According to SFLA, this inconsistency is problematic not because sign language or brewing are controversial, but because it gives university administrators the power to determine which events are controversial and which are not.&ldquo;An event held by a Planned Parenthood group can be deemed to be about &lsquo;women&rsquo;s health&rsquo;, while an event by Students for Life can be deemed &lsquo;political&rsquo;, and thus in need of warning signs,&rdquo; the group pointed out.<a href="https://www.campusreform.org/?ID=10750" style="text-decoration:none;">[RELATED: Feminist prof says trigger warnings &lsquo;imperative&rsquo; for learning]</a>&ldquo;Universities can not arbitrarily single out some views for warning signs. In doing so, they prime students to avoid and be offended by certain topics,&rdquo; said SFLA President Kristan Hawkins. &ldquo;While groups should be free to put up their own warning signs, no school should impose on schools this extra tax on speech, by influencing students to avoid certain displays.&ldquo;Thanks to the U.S. Constitution, the United States is a free speech zone, something that school administrators should remember and respect,&rdquo; she added.The University of New Mexico did not immediately respond to&nbsp;Campus Reform&rsquo;s&nbsp;request for comment.&nbsp;Follow this author on Facebook: <a href="https://www.facebook.com/vladimirovnikitav" style="text-decoration:none;">Nikita Vladimirov</a> and Twitter:&nbsp;<a href="http://www.twitter.com/nikvofficial" style="text-decoration:none;">@nikvofficial</a>

University posts trigger warning outside free speech zone

A California State University, Fresno professor has come under fire for cheering the death of Barbara Bush and claiming that she will &ldquo;never be fired&rdquo; due to her tenure status.&nbsp;In a series of tweets on Tuesday, academic Randa Jarrar&nbsp;<a href="https://twitchy.com/brettt-3136/2018/04/17/unhinged-professor-plays-the-victim-after-cheering-death-of-witch-barbara-bush/" style="text-decoration:none;">gleefully celebrated</a> the death of the former First Lady, calling her a &ldquo;witch&rdquo; and an &ldquo;amazing racist.&rdquo;<a href="https://www.campusreform.org/?ID=9660" style="text-decoration:none;">[RELATED: Prof suggests Texans deserve hurricane for supporting Trump]</a>&ldquo;Barbara Bush was a generous and smart and amazing racist who, along with her husband, raised a war criminal,&rdquo; the professor tweeted before making her profile private. &ldquo;F*** outta here with your nice words.&rdquo;&ldquo;PSA: either you are against these pieces of s*** and their genocidal ways or you&#39;re part of the problem. that&#39;s actually how simple this is,&rdquo; the academic continued in another tweet. &ldquo;I&#39;m happy the witch is dead. can&#39;t wait for the rest of her family to fall to their demise the way 1.5 million iraqis have. byyyeeeeeeee.&rdquo;Jarrar did not appear concerned with the potential consequences of her remarks, telling critics that she is a &ldquo;tenured professor&rdquo; and falsely claiming that she earns $100,000 a year.&ldquo;[S]weetie i work as a tenured professor,&rdquo; she wrote in response to another Twitter user. &ldquo;I make 100K a year doing that. i will never be fired. i will always have people wanting to hear what i have to say. even you are one of them! &lt;3&rdquo;Jarrar&rsquo;s remarks were sharply criticized by university President Joseph Castro, who&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/Fresno_State/status/986446832086671360" style="text-decoration:none;">issued a statement</a> expressing &ldquo;deep concerns&rdquo; about the professor&#39;s views shortly after the tweets went viral on Tuesday.&ldquo;On behalf of Fresno State, I extend my deepest condolences to the Bush family on the loss of our former First Lady, Barbara Bush,&rdquo; the statement began. &ldquo;We share the deep concerns expressed by others over the personal comments made today by Professor Randa Jarrar, a professor in the English Department at Fresno State.&ldquo;Professor Jarrar&rsquo;s expressed personal views and commentary are obviously contrary to the core values of our University, which include respect and empathy for individuals with divergent points of view, and a sincere commitment to mutual understanding and progress,&rdquo; Castro added.<a href="https://www.campusreform.org/?ID=9742" style="text-decoration:none;">[RELATED: Prof: &lsquo;I&rsquo;d be ok if #BetsyDevos was sexually assaulted&rsquo;]</a>In a statement to&nbsp;Campus Reform, a Fresno State spokesperson said that the university &ldquo;is reviewing the matter and taking it very seriously,&rdquo; disclosing that Jarrar&rsquo;s annual salary is actually $85,104&mdash;not $100,000 as she had claimed in her tweet.<a href="http://www.fresnobee.com/news/local/education/article209227364.html" style="text-decoration:none;">According to&nbsp;The Fresno Bee</a>, Castro also said Wednesday that Jarrar&rsquo;s remarks were &ldquo;disrespectful&rdquo; and are &ldquo;beyond free speech.&rdquo;&quot;A professor with tenure does not have blanket protection to say and do what they wish,&quot; the administrator said, as reported by the publication. &quot;We are all held accountable for our actions.&quot;<a href="https://www.campusreform.org/?ID=10124" style="text-decoration:none;">[RELATED: Exiled Drexel prof blames &#39;whiteness&#39; for Texas massacre]</a>Castro elaborated on his stance during a&nbsp;<a href="http://www.kmjnow.com/2018/04/18/fresno-state-reviewing-professor-after-slam-of-barbara-bush/" style="text-decoration:none;">radio interview with KMJ</a> on Wednesday, explaining that he was &ldquo;appalled&rdquo; when he read the scholar&rsquo;s tweets.&ldquo;I also want all of your listeners to know that I condemn the tone, substance, and timing of Dr. Jarrar&rsquo;s comments on Twitter, last night,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I want that to be unambiguous. And how do I feel? I was shocked, upset, appalled just like everybody else.&rdquo;On Wednesday afternoon, Fresno City College also&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/fresnocity/status/986745280866410497" style="text-decoration:none;">announced</a> that Jarrar has decided not to participate in an upcoming Lit Hop event where she was slated to be the headline speaker.&nbsp;Follow this author on Facebook: <a href="https://www.facebook.com/vladimirovnikitav" style="text-decoration:none;">Nikita Vladimirov</a> and Twitter:&nbsp;<a href="http://www.twitter.com/nikvofficial" style="text-decoration:none;">@nikvofficial</a>

Prof cheers death of Barbara Bush, then hides behind tenure

Political activists at Cabrillo College have allegedly damaged school property in an attempt to vandalize recruitment flyers posted by the Republicans and Libertarians Club on campus.Images and videos obtained by Campus Reform depict the aftermath of one recent instance, showing the smashed glass panel of a large student billboard and a defaced placard advertising the club&rsquo;s first meeting last week.&nbsp;<a href="https://www.campusreform.org/video/?ID=9915" style="text-decoration:none;">[RELATED: Conservative students catch liberal vandals in the act]</a>After breaking the glass, the unidentified perpetrator proceeded to vandalize the sign by adding text above the student group&rsquo;s call to join the campus organization.&nbsp;&quot;Are you homophobic, sexist, or racist?&rdquo; the scribbled message read.&nbsp;<img src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/campusreform/10788/CabrilloDisplayCase.jpg" style="width: 600px;" class="fr-fic fr-dib"><img src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/campusreform/10788/CabrilloFlyer.jpg" style="width: 600px;" class="fr-fic fr-dib">Cabrillo Republicans President Nikolas Osorio told Campus Reform that the vandal fled after the defacing the poster, and was later confronted by law enforcement at a nearby veterans center, but there is no arrest record indicating that the individual was charged with any crimes.&ldquo;It is disheartening that people find it necessary to tear down our posters, they aren&#39;t even extreme in any way. The only goal of these posters was to advertise when we meet,&rdquo; Osorio said. &ldquo;We have probably put up dozens of posters already, and there are less than ten up, as of now.&rdquo;<a href="https://www.campusreform.org/?ID=10755" style="text-decoration:none;">[RELATED: VIDEO: Angry student attacks pro-life display]</a>&ldquo;Every time we confront someone about tearing down our posters, they say that it is because they disagree or that we are fascists and bigots,&rdquo; he continued. &ldquo;It seems like the people who vandalize our posters are either associating the Republican Party with extremists, or they are extremists themselves and trying to stop our club from functioning.&rdquo;Osorio also noted that the Student Services Committee is slated &ldquo;to discuss posting regulations and requiring approval for postings&rdquo; on Tuesday.UPDATE:&nbsp;In a statement to Campus Reform, a Cabrillo College Student Services representative vowed that the college &ldquo;actively investigates these incidents, as they are both a criminal act as well as a violation of the Cabrillo Student Code of Conduct.&rdquo; &nbsp;&ldquo;Students who are found guilty of such acts are disciplined by the school and also face legal consequences,&rdquo; the official added. &ldquo;Cabrillo College takes these matters very seriously and does not tolerate this sort of behavior.&rdquo;Follow this author on Facebook: <a href="https://www.facebook.com/vladimirovnikitav" style="text-decoration:none;">Nikita Vladimirov</a> and Twitter:&nbsp;<a href="http://www.twitter.com/nikvofficial" style="text-decoration:none;">@nikvofficial</a>

Vandal smashes glass display case to get at Republican flyer

Texas State University&rsquo;s Student Government is set to hold a joint session Monday in an effort to address the grievances made by student demonstrators last week.The announcement was made by the dean of students on Twitter and comes as a response to a group of protesters who have occupied the LBJ Student Center since Wednesday, demanding that officials oust the student body president who escaped impeachment.<a href="https://www.campusreform.org/?ID=10776" style="text-decoration:none;">[RELATED: Students launch sit-in after failing to oust student gov prez]</a>&ldquo;In order to respond to their student constituencies, Student Government is cancelling their annual banquet and will be holding a joint session on Monday at 7:00 PM in the LBJ Teaching Theater,&rdquo; the dean of students&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/DOSTxState/status/984971903885611008" style="text-decoration:none;">tweeted Friday.</a>&nbsp;The sit-in began shortly after the Student Government failed to meet quorum on the impeachment of controversial Student Government President Connor Clegg on Wednesday.Clegg, notably, first sparked backlash after calling to defund the student newspaper for running an op-ed telling &ldquo;white people&rdquo; that &ldquo;your DNA is an abomination.&rdquo;&nbsp;Texas State President Denise Trauth also issued a lengthy statement on Friday, acknowledging &nbsp;that the student senators&rsquo; decision not to attend the impeachment trial was &ldquo;wrong, as it undermines the integrity of our student government processes.&rdquo;&nbsp;While the head administrator encouraged Student Government to examine its procedures and evaluate ways to &ldquo;hold its members accountable for their actions,&rdquo; she did indicate that the university will make a unilateral move to oust Clegg.Also on Friday, the protesters issued an additional list of demands, vowing to continue their occupation of the student center until they have all been met.&nbsp;<img src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/campusreform/10780/TXSTDemands.jpg" style="width: 370px;" class="fr-fic fr-dib fr-fil">&ldquo;There is a broad misconception that this sit-in is solely dedicated to the removal of student body representatives,&rdquo; the students wrote. &ldquo;Rather, this is a response to years of discrimination and complacency of the university in addressing student needs.&rdquo;<a href="https://www.campusreform.org/?ID=10206" style="text-decoration:none;">[RELATED: Student op-ed calls white people &#39;an abomination&#39;]</a>&ldquo;In addition to our course of action, there have been numerous efforts to maintain communication with the administration,&rdquo; the protesters continued. &ldquo;Yet, all we have received are empty promises and there has been no contact with the greater student body to acknowledge the neglect of students.&rdquo;The document, obtained by&nbsp;Campus Reform, goes on to list five specific demands, including a published action plan for &nbsp;&ldquo;providing students with a full-time immigration attorney,&rdquo; &ldquo;establishing a Black Studies minor,&rdquo; instituting diversity courses into the core curriculum,&rdquo; &ldquo;the formation of a task force&hellip; to address further issues of the cultural climate,&rdquo; and &ldquo;the denouncement and removal of Texas State&rsquo;s Student Body president.&rdquo;&nbsp;Follow this author on Facebook: <a href="https://www.facebook.com/vladimirovnikitav" style="text-decoration:none;">Nikita Vladimirov</a> and Twitter:&nbsp;<a href="http://www.twitter.com/nikvofficial" style="text-decoration:none;">@nikvofficial</a>

Student gov to consider mandatory diversity course after protests

Protesters have occupied the Texas State University student center since Wednesday, demanding that administrators oust the student body president who escaped impeachment.The demonstrators began protesting after the Student Government Senate and the Graduate House of Representatives <a href="https://star.txstate.edu/2018/04/senate-fails-to-meet-quorum-clegg-escapes-trial/" style="text-decoration:none;">failed to meet quorum</a> for impeachment of controversial Student Government President Connor Clegg.&nbsp;<a href="https://www.campusreform.org/?ID=10206" style="text-decoration:none;">[RELATED: Student op-ed calls white people &#39;an abomination&#39;]</a>According to multiple videos posted on social media this week, the activists <a href="https://twitter.com/KirbytheMermaid/status/984790375868100610" style="text-decoration:none;">occupied the LBJ Student Center</a>, calling for the administration to meet their demands and remove Clegg from his leadership position.&nbsp;<blockquote class="twitter-video" data-lang="en">Texas State Students have now been occupying the LBJ Student Center for 40 hours <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/TXSTSITIN?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#TXSTSITIN</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/TXST?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#TXST</a> <a href="https://t.co/GVSVfgTsC2">pic.twitter.com/GVSVfgTsC2</a>&mdash; Kirby Glass (@KirbytheMermaid) <a href="https://twitter.com/KirbytheMermaid/status/984790375868100610?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 13, 2018</a></blockquote>Demonstrators also appeared to <a href="https://twitter.com/brittlin_r/status/984519827296419840" style="text-decoration:none;">clash with law enforcement</a> officials who were escorting student senators out of a parking garage.<blockquote class="twitter-video" data-lang="en">Students on 1st floor of Matthew Street Parking Garage. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/TXSTSitIn?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#TXSTSitIn</a> <a href="https://t.co/safI7OPPDj">pic.twitter.com/safI7OPPDj</a>&mdash; Brittlin Richardson (@brittlin_r) <a href="https://twitter.com/brittlin_r/status/984519827296419840?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 12, 2018</a></blockquote><a href="https://www.statesman.com/news/local-education/protest-outrage-follow-scuttled-vote-texas-state-student-president/A4xnOnMMMBaJTIIEFTKhLL/" style="text-decoration:none;">According to the Austin American-Statesman</a>, Clegg was heavily criticised for his call to de-fund the student newspaper after it published a <a href="https://www.campusreform.org/?ID=10206" style="text-decoration:none;">controversial op-ed</a> telling &ldquo;white people&rdquo; that &ldquo;your DNA is an abomination.&rdquo;Clegg was also condemned for publishing several <a href="https://www.sacurrent.com/the-daily/archives/2018/02/02/texas-state-student-body-president-semi-apologizes-for-racist-instagram-posts" style="text-decoration:none;">controversial Instagram posts</a>, some of which dated back to 2014.&nbsp;<a href="https://www.campusreform.org/?ID=10738" style="text-decoration:none;">[RELATED: EXCLUSIVE: Student gov impeaches student for conservative views]</a>In late February, the Student Government Supreme Court at Texas State unanimously ruled against Clegg&rsquo;s impeachment, finding the student leader not guilty on all six articles presented to the chamber, <a href="https://star.txstate.edu/2018/02/connor-clegg-found-not-guilty-on-impeachment-charges/" style="text-decoration:none;">The University Star reported</a>.Dean of Students Margarita Arellano, however, <a href="http://gato-docs.its.txstate.edu/jcr:4872cda2-3164-4a41-851b-f021ed1c339f/Dean%20of%20Students%20Decision%20-%20Case%2004-02.pdf" style="text-decoration:none;">overturned the ruling</a> on March 28, arguing that she has sufficient evidence for Clegg&rsquo;s impeachment.On Wednesday, 19 senators reportedly skipped the impeachment hearing, ensuring that the student government did not have enough members to hold a vote on the resolution.<a href="https://www.campusreform.org/?ID=10193" style="text-decoration:none;">[RELATED: Columbia newspaper refuses to publish conservative student&rsquo;s op-ed]</a>&ldquo;The sit-in ends when [University President] Denise Trauth, and the administration publicly denounces Connor Clegg&rsquo;s actions, the actions of the student senators, and [when] there is an apology issued for the lack of justice and the lack of system and representation to support that justice,&rdquo; one protester <a href="https://twitter.com/brittlin_r/status/984465567527653377" style="text-decoration:none;">told The University Star</a> in a video interview. &nbsp;&ldquo;There was not an avenue to hold him accountable for being racist and to hold him accountable for being like dangerous and aweful and intolerant,&rdquo; the protester added.UPDATE:&nbsp;In a statement to Campus Reform, Texas State President Denise Trauth acknowledged that &ldquo;many members of our university community, including myself, find this non-attendance [of student senators] wrong, as it undermines the integrity of our student government processes.&rdquo;To that end, she encouraged student government to undertake a review of its procedures, and also look into how it can &ldquo;hold its members accountable for their actions.&rdquo;Trauth did not, however, indicate that the university will take any action to oust Clegg or pressure the student government to support the impeachment.Follow this author on Facebook: <a href="https://www.facebook.com/vladimirovnikitav" style="text-decoration:none;">Nikita Vladimirov</a> and Twitter:&nbsp;<a href="http://www.twitter.com/nikvofficial" style="text-decoration:none;">@nikvofficial</a>

Students launch sit-in after failing to oust student gov prez

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Former Contributor, Washington Examiner

Nikita Chirkov "Vladimirov"
Former Contributor, Washington Examiner

About Nikita

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Contact Nikita Chirkov "Vladimirov"

Nikita Chirkov "Vladimirov" Former Contributor, Washington Examiner

About Nikita

Media appearances

Stories by Nikita

Contact Nikita Chirkov "Vladimirov"

Nikita Chirkov "Vladimirov"
Former Contributor, Washington Examiner